Doris Lessing

Quick Facts

Doris May Lessing

Born: 1919

Died: 2013

Nationality: British

Genres: Realism, Modernism, Science Fiction, Feminism

Doris May Lessing was born on October 22, 1919, in Kermanshah, Persia (now Iran), where her father worked as a bank clerk. When she was five, the family moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), settling on a maize farm in the bush country. It was a harsh, isolated childhood that would profoundly shape her imagination. Largely self-educated after dropping out of a Catholic convent school at fourteen, Lessing read voraciously, devouring Dickens, Scott, Stevenson, and Kipling from her parents' modest library.

Her first marriage, to Frank Wisdom in 1939, produced two children but ended in 1943. She married Gottfried Lessing in 1945 — a German communist refugee — and had a son, Peter. When that marriage also dissolved, she made a decision that would define her life: in 1949, she left Rhodesia for London, carrying her youngest son and the manuscript of her first novel. She left her two older children behind with their father, a choice that haunted her but which she saw as necessary for her survival as a writer.

The Grass Is Singing (1950), her debut novel exploring the psychology of race relations in colonial Africa, was an immediate critical success. But it was The Golden Notebook (1962) that established Lessing as one of the most important writers of the twentieth century. The novel's radical structure — a series of notebooks kept by a woman writer experiencing creative and personal crisis — became a landmark of feminist literature, though Lessing herself resisted being claimed exclusively by the feminist movement. "I am not a feminist," she often said, even as feminists claimed her as one of their own.

Over a career spanning more than five decades, Lessing produced an extraordinary body of work: over fifty books including novels, short story collections, poetry, plays, opera libretti, and nonfiction. Her five-novel Children of Violence series (1952–1969) traced a woman's journey from colonial Africa to postwar London. In the late 1970s, she surprised readers by turning to science fiction with the Canopus in Argos series, insisting that the genre allowed her to explore ideas about consciousness and civilization that realism could not.

Her short fiction is among the finest of the twentieth century. "Through the Tunnel" (1955), first published in The New Yorker, remains one of the most widely anthologized coming-of-age stories in the English language, taught in schools around the world for its vivid depiction of a boy's dangerous passage from childhood dependence to self-reliance. Stories like "The Old Chief Mshlanga," "A Sunrise on the Veld," and "To Room Nineteen" demonstrate her range — from colonial Africa to the suffocating domesticity of postwar England.

In 2007, at the age of eighty-seven, Lessing was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, cited as "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to her scrutiny." She is the oldest person — and only the eleventh woman — to have received the prize. When journalists arrived at her doorstep with the news, she famously responded: "Oh Christ... I couldn't care less."

Doris Lessing died on November 17, 2013, at her home in London. Her work, spanning realism, science fiction, mysticism, and political polemic, continues to challenge readers with its relentless honesty about power, identity, freedom, and the inner lives of women.

Frequently Asked Questions about Doris Lessing

Who is Doris Lessing?
Doris Lessing (1919-2013) was a British-Zimbabwean novelist, short story writer, and Nobel Prize laureate. Born in Persia (now Iran) and raised in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), she moved to London in 1949 and became one of the most important writers of the twentieth century. Her work spans realism, science fiction, and political writing, and she is best known for The Golden Notebook (1962) and her numerous short stories.
What did Doris Lessing win the Nobel Prize for?
Doris Lessing was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2007 at the age of 87, making her the oldest person to receive the prize. The Swedish Academy cited her as "that epicist of the female experience, who with scepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilisation to her scrutiny." She was the eleventh woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.
What is "Through the Tunnel" about?
"Through the Tunnel" (1955) is a short story about Jerry, an eleven-year-old English boy on vacation with his widowed mother at a coastal town. He discovers local boys swimming through an underwater tunnel in the rocks of a wild bay and becomes obsessed with doing the same. After days of training to hold his breath, he makes the terrifying swim through the dark tunnel and emerges having proven his independence — a powerful metaphor for the passage from childhood to adolescence.
What is "The Golden Notebook" by Doris Lessing about?
The Golden Notebook (1962) is Lessing's most celebrated novel. It follows Anna Wulf, a writer experiencing creative and personal crisis, who keeps four separate notebooks — black (her African experiences), red (politics), yellow (fiction), and blue (a diary) — before attempting to unite them in a single golden notebook. The novel's experimental structure and exploration of women's inner lives made it a landmark of twentieth-century literature and feminist writing.
Where was Doris Lessing from?
Lessing was born in Kermanshah, Persia (now Iran), where her father worked as a bank clerk. When she was five, the family moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where she grew up on a maize farm. She was largely self-educated after leaving school at fourteen. In 1949, she moved to London, England, where she lived for the rest of her life. She held both British and Zimbabwean identity, and her African childhood profoundly influenced her writing.
What are the major themes in Doris Lessing's work?
Lessing's major themes include the inner lives of women and their struggles for autonomy; racial injustice and colonialism in Africa; political ideology (particularly communism and disillusionment with it); the tension between individual freedom and social conformity; consciousness and perception; and the relationship between mothers and children. Her work consistently interrogates power structures — political, sexual, and psychological — with unflinching honesty.
What are Doris Lessing's other famous works?
Beyond The Golden Notebook and "Through the Tunnel," Lessing's notable works include The Grass Is Singing (1950), her debut novel about race in colonial Africa; the five-novel Children of Violence series (1952-1969); The Good Terrorist (1985), shortlisted for the Booker Prize; the Canopus in Argos science fiction series (1979-1983); and short story collections including The Habit of Loving (1957) and African Stories (1964).
When did Doris Lessing die?
Doris Lessing died on November 17, 2013, at her home in London, at the age of 94. She had continued writing into her late eighties, publishing her last novel, Alfred and Emily, in 2008 at age 89. At the time of her death, she was widely regarded as one of the most important English-language writers of the twentieth century.