The prolific, Nobel Prize winning, Doris Lessing has passed away on November 17th. Lessing's cause of death is not immediately clear, as her family has requested privacy.

Lessing has left behind a small legacy of 55 works of
fiction in her wake, including The Golden Notebook , Children of Violence , and The Good Terrorist . Lessing's life's work received the Nobel Prize in 2007 at age 88- making her the oldest winner of the Nobel Prize. BBC quotes the Swedish Academy describing Lessing's work as an "epicist of the female experience, who with skepticism, fire and visionary power has subjected a divided civilization to scrutiny."

According to Lessing, the Nobel prize committee did not favor her, or her work, and she was surprised upon receiving the award.

Lessing's Obituary states that the controversial author provoked the ire and indignation of the American people when she said that 9/11 was not as devastating, or as morbid as the IRA campaign in the UK.

image: wikimedia commons