Doris Lessing (1919-2013), laureate of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature, among the most important post-World War II writers, was born in Persia (now Iran) to British parents and raised in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). In 1949, disappointed with her country’s regime and disillusioned with the communist movement of which she and her friends were members, she moved to London, where she published her first novel. She wrote novels, short story collections, memoirs, poems, plays, essays, and science-fiction books. Her literary writing was inspired by memories of her childhood in Africa and from her deep social and political involvement.
