Doris Lessing

Doris Lessing was a British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer. Born in Persia in 1919, raised in what is now Rhodesia and landing herself in England in 1949, Lessing passed away in November 17, 2013 at the age of 94.

When we heard of her passing in November of 2013, we looked in our archives and found two incredible recordings with Ms. Lessing, one from 1972 and one from 1963 recorded for WBAI at the BBC.
We only have time to share one in our program today so we ll start at the beginning.

A 1963 interview conducted following the release of perhaps her most notable novel, The Golden Notebook. We will also insert some excerpts of a reading of the Golden Notebook done by Mary Roman for KPFA in the 1970 s.

To understand Doris Lessing a little bit more before we begin I spoke to Grace Cavalieri, our godmother of poetry on the radio. Grace, an award winning poet and playwright is the longtime Host of the Poet and the Poem from the Library of congress, now in its 37th year.

So here is a conversation from 1963 between free-lance writer Richard Keffler, and Doris May Lessing a British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer recorded for Pacifica s NY station WBAI at the BBC studios in London.

Other books by Lessing include Memoirs of a Survivor, Canopus in Argos, The Good Terrorist, the fifth child. And now back to author Doris Lessing and BBC interviewer Richard Keffler from 1963.


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