Doris Lessing, the prolific Nobel Prize-winning author, died on Sunday morning. She was 94.

Lessing’s death was announced by her publisher Harper Collins. During her writing career with Harper Collins, Lessing published a total of 55 works, which included poetry, operas and short stories. One of her most highly regarded works was the 1962 book The Golden Notebook, which has been dubbed the first feminist novel.

Harper Collins Remembers Doris Lessing

"Doris's long life and career was a great gift to world literature," said Nicholas Pearson, Lessing's editor at Harper Collins, in a statement. "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,” continued the statement. “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."

Doris Lessing's Published Works

Lessing published her first novel. The Grass is Singing, in 1950 after leaving her second husband Gottfried Lessing, and transplanting to Britain from Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). The narrative, set within a cold marriage, prompted discussion on both the racism and poverty of the region. She followed up her debut output with a series of autobiographical works including The Four-Gated City. Going Home, one of her early nonfiction efforts, came out in 1957 and detailed her return to Southern Rhodesia. During the later part of her career, Lessing had taken to writing science fiction as a way to analyze “social fiction.”

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Lessing was also presented with the Somerset Maughham Award and the Companion of Honor Award during her lifetime. When she learned that she’d received the Nobel from reporters, she replied, “Oh Christ,” before adding, “I’ve won all the prizes in Europe, every bloody one, so I’m delighted to win them all. It’s a royal flush.”

Lessing is survived by her daughter Jean and granddaughters Anna and Susannah.

– Chelsea Regan

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