Renowned novelist E.L. Doctorow will give a free public talk, "Notes on the History of Fiction," Thursday, March 26, at 6:30 p.m. at UNC.

Doctorow, whose novels include "Ragtime," "Billy Bathgate" and "The March," will speak in the auditorium of Hanes Art Center on South Columbia Street. A book sale and signing will begin at 5:30 p.m., preceding his talk.

Doctorow's 2005 novel "The March" is set during Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's Civil War march through Georgia and the Carolinas in 1864-1865. Doctorow won his second National Book Critics' Circle Award for fiction and second PEN/Faulkner Award for the book, which also was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and a nominee for the National Book Award.

Doctorow has said he began to consider writing a novel about Sherman's march after reading the account of that pivotal event in a book called "The March to the Sea and Beyond," by UNC historian Joseph Glatthaar.

Glatthaar, acknowledged in Doctorow's book, is the Stephenson Distinguished Professor in American Civil War Studies and chair of the Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense.

"E.L. Doctorow's editor at Random House contacted me and said that he (Doctorow) had asked if I would read his manuscript," Glatthaar said. "I read it, and it was just magnificent. I couldn't put it down. He had done so much research. I sent my comments, and he and I have had steady correspondence ever since. He's been exceedingly generous in talking about my book."

Doctorow came into national prominence with his third novel, "The Book of Daniel" in 1971. The book, a fictionalized account of the trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, was nominated for the National Book Award.

His next book, 1975's "Ragtime," was a huge critical and commercial success, winning the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Doctorow won the National Book Award for "World's Fair" in 1985 and the Pen/Faulkner Award for "Billy Bathgate" in 1989.

Doctorow will be a Frey Foundation Distinguished Visiting Professor in UNC's College of Arts and Sciences. In addition to the public lecture, he will speak to Glatthaar's U.S. history class.

UNC units sponsoring Doctorow's talk are the college; the Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense; the Institute for the Arts and Humanities; the history department and the Center for the Study of the American South.

Limited parking for the lecture will be available on campus in the Swain, Morehead and Ramshead lots; commercial parking is available on Rosemary Street.