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Doris May Lessing was a British novelist – sometimes identified as Rhodesian early in her career – and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2007. Lessing was born to British parents in Qajar Iran, where she lived until she was 6 in 1925. Her family then moved to Southern Rhodesia, where she remained until moving to London, England, in 1949. Her novels include The Grass Is Singing (1950), the…
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culture · British novelist (1919–2013) · writer · poet · novelist · playwright · autobiographer · screenwriter · essayist · science fiction writer · prose writer · also Doris Lessing, Doris May Tayler, Doris May Lessing, Jane Somers, Lessing
Born 22 October 1919 · Died 17 November 2013 · Q40874
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“s job. But, he tried hard to improve his skills and he even laboriously changed his handwriting because one of his superiors disparaged it. Alfred may have felt that he would not mind his bank clerk”
“old love affair from the war”
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The Guardian: A jazz player, a rock climber and Doris Lessing: life for women over 50, 1975
The Guardian: How much did The Golden Notebook lift from Doris Lessing’s life?
The Guardian: Doris Lessing's The Golden Notebook is our Reading group book for October
The Guardian: Reading group: which Doris Lessing book should we read in October?
Died 2013-11-17.
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“In the writing process, the more the story cooks, the better. The brain works for you even when you are at rest. I find dreams particularly useful. I myself think a great deal before I go to sleep and the details sometimes unfold in the dream.”
“Nie jestem samotna – odparła Mary zgodnie z prawdą. Samotność, pomyślała, to pragnienie towarzystwa innych ludzi. Ale nie zdawała sobie sprawy, że przez brak towarzystwa samotność może niezauważalnie poczynić duchowe spustoszenie.”
“You can only learn to be a better writer by actually writing. I don't know much about creative writing programs. But they're not telling the truth if they don't teach, one, that writing is hard work and, two, that you have to give up a great deal of life, your personal life, to be a writer.”
“All one's life as a young woman one is on show, a focus of attention, people notice you. You set yourself up to be noticed and admired. And then, not expecting it, you become middle-aged and anonymous. No one notices you. You achieve a wonderful freedom. It's a positive thing. You can move about unnoticed and invisible.”
“Cada libro tiene su propia vida. Por lo general, todos los libros tienen que luchar al principio contra la negatividad y la indiferencia.”
“To kwestia godzin. Jeszcze kilka i ten skarbczyk wspomnień i doświadczeń rozpłynie się w nicości. To potworne, że istota ludzka, która jakimś cudem przetrwała tyle dziesięcioleci wojen, chorób i wypadków, umiera w końcu i nic po niej nie pozostaje.”
“Zrzędząca baba w domu to jak pchła na ciele – można się podrapać, ale ona zawsze przeskoczy w inne miejsce, i człowiek nie zazna spokoju, dopóki jej nie zabije.”
“There are no laws for the novel. There never have been, nor can there ever be.”
Awarded Order of Mapungubwe in Gold (2008).
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The Times ranked her fifth on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945"
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Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature — that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny.
Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature (2007).
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Lessing was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature
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The newsletter became the academic journal Doris Lessing Studies
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Awarded David Cohen Prize (2001).
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Awarded Princess of Asturias Literary Prize (2001).
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Lessing was awarded the David Cohen Prize for a lifetime's achievement in British literature
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Awarded honorary doctorate presented by The Open University (1999).
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Awarded Catalonia International Prize (1999).
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Awarded James Tait Black Memorial Prize (1995).
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Awarded Årets budeie (1994).
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As an honour linked to a non-existent Empire; she had previously declined appointment as an OBE in 1977
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Awarded Grinzane Cavour Prize (1989).
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Awarded Trevi award (1987).
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Awarded WH Smith Literary Award (1986).
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Both novels were republished in both countries (Viking Books publishing in the US), this time under one cover, with the title The Diaries of Jane Somers: The Diary of a Good Neighbour and If the Old Could, listing Doris
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And If the Old Could in both countries in 1984, both as written by Jane Somers
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Wrote in reference to The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 that "[o]ne of the many sins for which the 20th century will be held accountable is that it has discouraged Mrs
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Lessing wrote two novels under the literary pseudonym Jane Somers to show the difficulty new authors face in trying to get their work printed
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Awarded Austrian State Prize for European Literature (1981).
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Awarded Prix Médicis étranger (1976).
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Awarded Somerset Maugham Award (1954).
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“Concerning her 1952 trip to the USSR.”
With her younger son, Peter, to pursue her writing career and socialist beliefs, but left the two older children with their father, Frank Wisdom
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Leaving the two children with their father
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Lessing moved to Salisbury to work as a telephone operator, and she soon married her first husband, civil servant Frank Wisdom, with whom she had two children (John, 1940–1992, and Jean, born in 1941), before the marriag
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The family moved to the British colony of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to farm maize and other crops on about 1,000 acres (400 ha) of bush that Alfred bought
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Born 1919-10-22.
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