Nobel Prize–winning author Doris Lessing was born one hundred years ago, on October 22, 1919. In celebration and recognition of Lessing’s extraordinary literary career, items from her archive are currently featured in our exhibition Stories to Tell: Selections from the Harry Ransom Center to mark the centenary of her birth.
Born to British parents in what is now Iran, Lessing moved with her family to the British colony of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1924 when she was a young child. Her family settled on a farm, and Lessing lived in Africa until she moved to London in 1949. She had a deep love of Africa, and much of her fiction in the 1950s and 1960s—most notably her books The Grass is Singing (1950), African Stories (1964), and the Children of Violence series of five novels (1952–1969)—developed from her experiences there as a child and young adult.
Lessing was deeply affected by the social injustices she witnessed, and her books drew attention to racism, colonialism, poverty, and social inequalities. These subjects infused her early writings, much to the frustration of colonial African officials. In 1956, Lessing was refused entry into South Africa, and later into Rhodesia, because of her public criticisms of their governments’ racial and social policies. In a letter on display in the exhibition, Lessing describes her experiences being deported by South African officials after she arrived at the Johannesburg airport. She notes: “I feel very sad, irrationally enough, because I do so love everything about the Union but the political set up, and now I shall never see it again until Doomsday.” Lessing wouldn’t return to South Africa until 1995, after the end of Apartheid and the formation of a democratic government in the country.
Lessing’s love of Africa is evident not only in her books and letters but also in other personal writings that can be found in her archive. One example on display in the exhibition is a document Lessing made in 1968 describing what appears to be a dream she had that was set at the Rhodesian border. In recounting the dream, she notes, “Suddenly it occurred to me that I was at the Rhodesian frontier and about to go in, and I was prohibited—once again I would find myself inside the country without papers.” When she was unexpectedly permitted entry into Rhodesia in her dream, she was overcome with emotion: “I began crying with happiness. Around me were the immensely tall gum trees of Africa, but much taller than they ever could be in life, and the blue sky. Sun glittered on the leaves. I kept crying out: Why do I love this country so much, why do I love it so much?”
In 2007, when she was 88 years old, Doris Lessing was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her Nobel Lecture was read on December 7, 2007 at the Swedish Academy on Lessing’s behalf by her British editor, Nicholas Pearson, because she was unable to travel to Stockholm at the time. Titled “On Not Winning the Nobel Prize,” the lecture drew attention to the inequality and lack of opportunity Lessing witnessed in impoverished parts of the world. In the lecture, Lessing emphasized that having access to books is critical for rising out of poverty. Indeed, books played a significant role in her own story of becoming a Nobel Prize–winning writer. Lessing’s formal education ended when she was a young teenager, and she was largely self-educated through books.
Lessing was committed to bringing the same opportunities that books afforded her to her fellow Africans. During her lifetime, she established village libraries throughout Zimbabwe, particularly in rural communities. After she died, on November 17, 2013 at the age of 94, more than 3,000 books from her own personal library were donated to the Harare City Library in Zimbabwe.
The Ransom Center is home to an extensive collection of Doris Lessing’s papers. Originally acquired in 1999, with later materials added in 2015, the archive fills 76 boxes and documents dozens of Lessing’s works. A sampling of materials from the archive that offer insight into the life and work of this remarkable author can be viewed in Stories to Tell: Selections from the Harry Ransom Center exhibition through February 2, 2020.
Top image: Unidentified photographer, [Doris Lessing], ca. 1940s. Joan Rodker Papers (2.6).
Megan Barnard is the Associate Director for Administration and Curatorial Affairs at the Harry Ransom Center.