Nobel Prize Winning Author Doris Lessing Dead at 94

Posted on November 18, 2013

Nobel Prize-winning author Doris Lessing has died at the age of 94. HarperCollins confirmed her death to The New York Times, and said in a statement that she died at home peacefully, surrounded by her family.

Lessing has been a controversial figure for much of her career. The author of more than 50 novels is widely considered a groundbreaking feminist writer, yet Lessing herself took umbrage at this characterization of her her work. Her seminal novels, The Golden Notebook and The Grass is Singing, have spawned a great deal of analysis, most of which Lessing disagreed with. Lessing's work won many awards, including the David Cohen Prize for lifetime achievement in British Literature and the Nobel Prize for Literature.

"Nicholas Pearson, Lessing's editor at HarperCollins, said, "Doris's long life and career was a great gift to world literature. She wrote across a variety of genres and made an enormous cultural impact. Probably she’ll be most remembered for The Golden Notebook which became a handbook to a whole generation, but her many books have spoken to us in so many various ways. Doris has been called a visionary and, to be in her company, which was a privilege I had as her editor towards the end of her writing life, was to experience something of that. Even in very old age she was always intellectually restless, reinventing herself, curious about the changing world around us, always completely inspirational. We'll miss her hugely."

Charlie Redmayne, CEO of HarperCollins UK, said in a statement, "Doris Lessing was a one of the great writers of our age. She was a compelling storyteller with a fierce intellect and a warm heart who was not afraid to fight for what she believed in. It was an honour for HarperCollins to publish her."