Doris Lessing manuscripts, 1974-1985

Collection

Identifier: 1976-010

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Consists of the typescript, carbon copy typescript, photocopied typescript, and galley proofs for the novel, Memoirs of a Survivor; typescript and carbon copy typescript of the novella, the Temptation of Jack Orkney; and the typesetter's copy and master galleys of The Good Terrorist.

Dates

Creation: 1971 - 1985

Creator

Lessing, Doris, 1919-2013 (Author, Person)

Language

These materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

This material is open for research use by any registered reader. Most of this material is housed off-site and will require advance notice of 1 business day for use.

Use and Copyright

This material is owned by the University of Tulsa, McFarlin Library, Department of Special Collections. Unpublished manuscripts are under copyright, permission to publish, quote or reproduce must be secured from both the repository and the copyright holder. This material is housed off-site and will require special arrangements for anticipated use.

Biographical / Historical

Doris Lessing was born Doris May Taylor on October 22, 1919, in Persia (now Iran) to British parents. In 1925, the family moved to what is now Zimbabwe to farm maize. She dropped out of school at the age of 13 and became a nursemaid at the age of 15. In 1937, she moved to Salisbury where she met and married Frank Wisdom, with whom she had two children. She eventually left her family to join the Left Book Club, a group of Communists, where she met Gottfried Lessing. They married and had a son. Before leaving the group, she and her son moved to London where she wrote and published her first book, "The Grass is Singing." In 1956, she was banned from South Africa for her political outspokenness. She wrote about the gross injustices of racial inequality. She wrote several well known novels. In 1996, she was nominated for a Nobel Prize for literature for the book "Love Again." She was awarded several prestigious awards over the years and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007.