Doris Lessing

Author profile

born

in Kermanshah, Iran

October 22, 1919

website

http://www.dorislessing.org

genre

Literature & Fiction

influences

Idries Shah, Olive Schreiner, Simone de Beauvoir, Sartre, Dostoevsky,...more

About this author

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Both of her parents were British: her father, who had been crippled in World War I, was a clerk in the Imperial Bank of Persia; her mother had been a nurse. In 1925, lured by the promise of getting rich through maize farming, the family moved to the British colony in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Like other women writers from southern African who did not graduate from high school (such as Olive Schreiner and Nadine Gordimer), Lessing made herself into a self-educated intellectual.

In 1937 she moved to Salisbury, where she worked as a telephone operator for a year. At nineteen, she married Frank Wisdom, and had two children. A few years later, feeling trapped in a persona that she feared would destroy her, she left her family, remaining...more Both of her parents were British: her father, who had been crippled in World War I, was a clerk in the Imperial Bank of Persia; her mother had been a nurse. In 1925, lured by the promise of getting rich through maize farming, the family moved to the British colony in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Like other women writers from southern African who did not graduate from high school (such as Olive Schreiner and Nadine Gordimer), Lessing made herself into a self-educated intellectual.

In 1937 she moved to Salisbury, where she worked as a telephone operator for a year. At nineteen, she married Frank Wisdom, and had two children. A few years later, feeling trapped in a persona that she feared would destroy her, she left her family, remaining in Salisbury. Soon she was drawn to the like-minded members of the Left Book Club, a group of Communists "who read everything, and who did not think it remarkable to read." Gottfried Lessing was a central member of the group; shortly after she joined, they married and had a son.

During the postwar years, Lessing became increasingly disillusioned with the Communist movement, which she left altogether in 1954. By 1949, Lessing had moved to London with her young son. That year, she also published her first novel, The Grass Is Singing, and began her career as a professional writer.

In June 1995 she received an Honorary Degree from Harvard University. Also in 1995, she visited South Africa to see her daughter and grandchildren, and to promote her autobiography. It was her first visit since being forcibly removed in 1956 for her political views. Ironically, she is welcomed now as a writer acclaimed for the very topics for which she was banished 40 years ago.

In 2001 she was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize in Literature, one of Spain's most important distinctions, for her brilliant literary works in defense of freedom and Third World causes. She also received the David Cohen British Literature Prize.

She was on the shortlist for the first Man Booker International Prize in 2005. In 2007 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.

(Extracted from the pamphlet: A Reader's Guide to The Golden Notebook & Under My Skin, HarperPerennial, 1995. Full text available on www.dorislessing.org).(less)

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Doris Lessing's Books

Average rating: 3.57 · 63,833 ratings · 4,443 reviews · 106 distinct works · Similar authors

	The Golden Notebook 3.72 of 5 stars 3.72 avg rating — 7,074 ratings — published 1962 — 50 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Fifth Child 3.48 of 5 stars 3.48 avg rating — 4,488 ratings — published 1985 — 53 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Grass is Singing 3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 avg rating — 3,048 ratings — published 1950 — 49 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Good Terrorist 3.65 of 5 stars 3.65 avg rating — 1,230 ratings — published 1387 — 30 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Memoirs of a Survivor 3.61 of 5 stars 3.61 avg rating — 1,064 ratings — published 1974 — 27 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Martha Quest (Children of Violence, #1) 3.82 of 5 stars 3.82 avg rating — 923 ratings — published 1962 — 22 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Cleft 2.79 of 5 stars 2.79 avg rating — 1,325 ratings — published 2007 — 26 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Shikasta 3.77 of 5 stars 3.77 avg rating — 869 ratings — published 1979 — 14 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Briefing for a Descent Into Hell 3.69 of 5 stars 3.69 avg rating — 787 ratings — published 1971 — 19 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Summer Before the Dark 3.61 of 5 stars 3.61 avg rating — 750 ratings — published 1973 — 20 editions	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Doris Lessing…

Series by Doris Lessing

Canopus in Argos (5 books)
by Doris Lessing
3.881487889273356 of 5 stars 3.88 avg rating — 2,312 ratings

Children of Violence (7 books)
by Doris Lessing, Marianne Véron (Traduction)
3.9496659242761694 of 5 stars 3.95 avg rating — 2,245 ratings

The Diaries of Jane Somers (3 books)
by Doris Lessing, Franca Castellenghi Piazza (Translator), Doris Lessing
3.9747899159663866 of 5 stars 3.97 avg rating — 476 ratings

Doris Lessing's Collected African Stories (2 books)
by Doris Lessing
3.730769230769231 of 5 stars 3.73 avg rating — 52 ratings

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Quotes by Doris Lessing

“Whatever you're meant to do, do it now. The conditions are always impossible.”
― Doris Lessing

2,573 people liked it

“Ideally, what should be said to every child, repeatedly, throughout his or her school life is something like this: 'You are in the process of being indoctrinated. We have not yet evolved a system of education that is not a system of indoctrination. We are sorry, but it is the best we can do. What you are being taught here is an amalgam of current prejudice and the choices of this particular culture. The slightest look at history will show how impermanent these must be. You are being taught by people who have been able to accommodate themselves to a regime of thought laid down by their predecessors. It is a self-perpetuating system. Those of you who are more robust and individual than others will be encouraged to leave and find ways of educating yourself — educating your own judgements. Those that stay must remember, always, and all the time, that they are being moulded and patterned to fit into the narrow and particular needs of this particular society.”
― Doris Lessing, The Golden Notebook

tags: conformity, education, feminism, knowledge-power, quip, school

851 people liked it

“There is no doubt fiction makes a better job of the truth.”
― Doris Lessing, Under My Skin

tags: fiction, on-fiction, storytelling, truth, truth-telling

575 people liked it

See all Doris Lessing's quotes »

Polls

February Group Read (Beyond 1940):

The Grass Is Singing by Doris Lessing

5 votes, 41.7%

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

3 votes, 25.0%

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

2 votes, 16.7%

The Empress of Ireland by Christopher Robbins

1 vote, 8.3%

The Plague by Albert Camus

1 vote, 8.3%

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

0 votes, 0.0%

Herzog by Saul Bellow

0 votes, 0.0%

Love Lies Bleeding by Edmund Crispin

0 votes, 0.0%

12 total votes

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Doris Lessing

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Series by Doris Lessing

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Quotes by Doris Lessing

Polls

Topics Mentioning This Author

combine editions
Doris Lessing's Books