Doris Lessing, 1984. © Marianne Majerus

The Nobel Laureate, Doris Lessing, died in November 2013 at the age of 94. She was a visionary writer whose prolific output caught the ebb and flow of cultural, social and political ideas for over half a century. Her huge body of published work, for which she is internationally acclaimed, includes novels, stories, nonfiction, poems, plays and opera libretti. She received, among other honours, the David Cohen British Literature Prize, the Companion of Honour from the Royal Society of Literature and the Golden PEN Award for a Lifetime’s Distinguished Service to Literature. In 2007 she became the oldest person ever to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. In her characteristically down-to-earth manner, she responded to the news of her Nobel

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Citation: Scullion, Val. "Doris Lessing". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 November 2002; last revised 20 March 2018. [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2703, accessed 19 March 2024.]

2703 Doris Lessing 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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