What E.L. Doctorow meant to President Obama, fellow authors

With news of the death of literary legend E.L. Doctorow, who died Tuesday of complications from lung cancer at 84, fellow authors, fans and those he inspired took to social media to mourn his loss and sing his praises.

Best known for such works of historical fiction as "Ragtime," "The Book of Daniel" and "Billy Bathgate," Doctorow was, as The Times' David Ulin points out, "perhaps the most American novelist of his generation. More than Philip Roth or John Updike, more even than Norman Mailer, Doctorow created fiction that existed at the intersection of American myth and hypocrisy."

Doctorow's influence transcended the literary world. President Obama acknowledged Doctorow's impact on the official POTUS twitter.

A diverse array of writers took to Twitter to pay their respects to Doctorow, including Oliver Sacks, ("Awakenings"), Maaza Mengiste ("Beneath the Lion's Gaze") and others.

Doctorow's detailed eye for the past impressed historian Simon Schama, while writers Porochista Khakpour ("Sons and Other Flammable Objects"), Janelle Brown ("All We Ever Wanted Was Everything") and Angela Flournoy ("The Turner House") remain in awe of his formidable writing skills.

Author and professor Diana Abu Jaber quoted the man himself in her tweet.

Along with others, Gary Shteyngart ("Absurdistan"), Darin Strauss ("Half a Life"), psychotherapist-turned-author Amy Bloom and Jennifer E. Smith ("The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight") reflected on Doctorow's personality.

MORE:

Read the Los Angeles Times obituary

Remembering E.L. Doctorow, great American mythologist

E.L. Doctorow's film legacy, from 'Hard Times' to 'Ragtime'