Doris Lessing

Doris Lessing, who passed away in 2013, is a renowned novelist and short story writer, as well as a playwright and essayist. She was born Doris May Tayler in 1919 in Persia, now Iran. At the age of five, she and her family moved to Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, where her father had taken a job on the land.

Lessing’s early years were spent in Rhodesia, where she was educated in a local mission school. She did not excel at school and later claimed that her entire education was in “other books”. She wrote her first novel in 1947, but it was not published. In 1949, she moved to London with her son (from her first marriage) and started to write for various publications.

In 1950, Lessing started to write her own short stories, which later formed the short story collection, The Habit of Loving. This collection was followed in 1953 by her first novel, The Grass is Singing, which was focused on the racial tensions in Southern Rhodesia. In 1957, she wrote another novel, The Golden Notebook, which became one of her most acclaimed works.

The Golden Notebook is considered to be a feminist novel, dealing with the topics of female identity, mental health and relationships. Other important works by Lessing include the Children of Violence series, published between 1952 and 1969, as well as two additional novels, They were Sisters and The Fifth Child.

Perhaps one of the reasons why Doris Lessing’s writings continue to be relevant and inspiring is because of their universality, which resonates with a wide range of ages, genders and backgrounds. Her works are often highly praised for their ability to capture complex human emotions in a simple and straightforward manner.

In spite of her incredible success, Lessing was widely known for her determined stance against awards, including the Nobel Prize for Literature, which she eventually accepted in 2007. She was a highly articulate, strong-minded and inspiring woman and her legacy will continue to live on with her works.