I did have a feeling then that the culture of factuality was so dominating that storytelling had lost all its authority.

In 1969 Doctorow left publishing in order to write accepting a position as Visiting Writer at the University of California Irvine where he completed The Book of Daniel (1971) a freely fictionalized consideration of the trial and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for allegedly giving nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He has donated his papers to the Fales Library of New York University. 31 no.

He is known internationally for his unique works of historical fiction.