Facts about Doris Lessing

1. 08

   British-Zimbabwean author Doris Lessing wrote under the pen name Jane Somers for two novels in the 1980s to test whether publishers would reject an unknown writer.

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2. 07

   Between 1950 and 1956, Doris Lessing published the five-novel Children of Violence sequence while living in Southern Rhodesia, establishing herself as a major literary voice before her exile.

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3. 06

   Doris Lessing won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2007 at age 88, becoming the oldest woman to receive the award at that time.

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4. 05

   Her 1969 novel The Four-Gated City concluded the five-book Children of Violence sequence that spanned nearly two decades of writing.

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5. 04

   Doris Lessing was banned from entering Southern Rhodesia and South Africa for 10 years during the 1950s due to her anti-colonial political activities.

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6. 03

   At age 30, Doris Lessing joined the Communist Party in Southern Rhodesia in 1954 and remained active in leftist politics for over a decade before becoming disillusioned.

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7. 02

   The Golden Notebook, Lessing's 1962 masterpiece, was structured across four colored notebooks documenting a writer's fragmented life and politics.

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8. 01

   In 1924, Doris Lessing was born in Persia to British parents working for the Imperial Bank of Persia.

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