Edgar Lawrence Doctorow (b. 1931) is a living classic of American literature, twice winner of the US National Book Award (1976 and 1986). At one time, his masterpiece “Ragtime” (1975) (filmed by Milos Forman), translated into Russian by V. Aksenov, created a real sensation. In The March (2005), Doctorow betrays his favorite era—the turn of the century, against which Ragtime and the World's Fair (1985) are set—and takes on another historical layer—the Civil War, an epoch-making period in American history. The novel about the notorious Northern General William Sherman, whose decisive actions determined the outcome of the war in favor of the Yankees, like other works of Doctorow, is a fusion of literature of fiction and literature of fact. “The fluid world of Sherman’s army, destroying life just as a stream destroys it, draws into itself and carries fragments of this life, but already changed, turned into something new,” John Updike writes about Doctorow’s novel. Doctorow’s “The March,” echoed Walter Kern, “demonstrates what most other historical war novels are silent about: “Yes, war is hell. But hell is not the end of the world. And by learning to live in hell—and to go through hell—people change and renew the world. They have no other choice.”