A Westchester Icon

In a world where few people agree about anything, I took pleasure in the news that most people including President Obama and New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson agree that EL Doctorow, who passed away last month, was a national treasure.  His parents named him Edgar after Poe. EL reminded his mother frequently that she misfired on the name because Poe, although he was a great author and poet, also was a delusional alcoholic. A sense of humor and a penchant for historical lore became his trademark. A Doctorow novel would begin with a historical thread into which he would weave invented people to inhabit his story. He was known to say he was fortunate to not have television growing up. It meant he had to read…and read he did, deciding at age nine to become a writer. Former neighbors in New Rochelle remember him fondly & so do I.