delusions of grandeur, becomes obsessed with reincarnation and Egyptian mysticism, and finds an unexpected kindred spirit in the down-to-earth Henry Ford. Traveling to Egypt hoping for a vision of his grand destiny, Morgan only dreams of a past life as an ordinary peddler. Socialite Evelyn Nesbit, desperate to escape the press, becomes involved with Tateh and takes it on herself to care for his daughter. On meeting the anarchist agitator Emma Goldman her identity is exposed and Tateh leaves her. Emma gives Evelyn comfort and guidance on how to free herself from the domination of men. Later, Younger Brother encounters Goldman, who advises him to move beyond his obsession with Evelyn. The black moderate politician Booker T. Washington tries to negotiate with Coalhouse Walker, without success. Other historical characters mentioned include the polar explorer Robert Peary and his black assistant Matthew Henson, the architect Stanford White, Nesbit's mentally unbalanced husband Harry Kendall Thaw (who murdered White for allegedly sexually assaulting Nesbit when she was 15), Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, Countess Sophie Chotek, Sigmund Freud, who rides the Tunnel of Love at Coney Island with Carl Jung, Theodore Dreiser, Jacob Riis, and the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata, whom Younger Brother eventually joins forces. Several real-life New York City officials also appear in the book: Manhattan District Attorney Charles S. Whitman and Police Commissioner Rhinelander Waldo. Influences The name Coalhouse Walker is a reference to Heinrich von Kleist's German novella Michael Kohlhaas (1811). The part of the story involving Coalhouse's humiliation and his increasingly desperate search for a dignified resolution closely follow the plot and details of the earlier work by Kleist. The connection was acknowledged by Doctorow, but it is a matter of opinion among critics whether this constitutes literary adaptation or plagiarism. Literary significance The novel was a nominee for the Nebula Award for Best Novel and won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in 1975, and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award in 1976. Fredric Jameson's 1991 book Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism devotes five pages to Doctorow's Ragtime, to illustrate the crisis of historiography and a resistance to interpretation. Film and theatrical adaptations The novel was adapted for an eponymous 1981 movie and 1998 musical. Further reading See chapter 5, "Analysis of ambiguous narrative voice and issues of demystification". References 1975 American novels American historical novels American novels