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A Small Personal Voice
Paperback. 192 English Flamingo An essential and definitive collection of the Nobel Prize for Literature winners finest essays. reviews. reminiscences and interviews from the 1950s. 1960s and 1970s.The novelist talks as an individual to individuals. in a . small personal voice In an age of committee art. public art. people may begin to feel again a need for the small personal voice; and this will feed confidence into writers and. with confidence because of the knowledge of being needed. the warmth and humanity. and love of people which is essential for a great age of literature.In this collection of her non-fiction. Lessings own life and work are the subject of a number of pieces. as are fellow writers such as Isak Dinesen and Kurt Vonnegut . There are essays on Malcolm X and Sufism. discussions of the responsibility of the artist. thoughts on her...
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
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About the author
Doris Lessing
475 books3,190 followersDoris Lessing was born into a colonial family. both of her parents were British: her father, who had been crippled in World War I, was a clerk in the Imperial Bank of Persia; her mother had been a nurse. In 1925, lured by the promise of getting rich through maize farming, the family moved to the British colony in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Like other women writers from southern African who did not graduate from high school (such as Olive Schreiner and Nadine Gordimer), Lessing made herself into a self-educated intellectual.
In 1937 she moved to Salisbury, where she worked as a telephone operator for a year. At nineteen, she married Frank Wisdom, and later had two children. A few years later, feeling trapped in a persona that she feared would destroy her, she left her family, remaining in Salisbury. Soon she was drawn to the like-minded members of the Left Book Club, a group of Communists "who read everything, and who did not think it remarkable to read." Gottfried Lessing was a central member of the group; shortly after she joined, they married and had a son.
During the postwar years, Lessing became increasingly disillusioned with the Communist movement, which she left altogether in 1954. By 1949, Lessing had moved to London with her young son. That year, she also published her first novel, The Grass Is Singing, and began her career as a professional writer.
In June 1995 she received an Honorary Degree from Harvard University. Also in 1995, she visited South Africa to see her daughter and grandchildren, and to promote her autobiography. It was her first visit since being forcibly removed in 1956 for her political views. Ironically, she is welcomed now as a writer acclaimed for the very topics for which she was banished 40 years ago.
In 2001 she was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize in Literature, one of Spain's most important distinctions, for her brilliant literary works in defense of freedom and Third World causes. She also received the David Cohen British Literature Prize.
She was on the shortlist for the first Man Booker International Prize in 2005. In 2007 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
(Extracted from the pamphlet: A Reader's Guide to The Golden Notebook & Under My Skin, HarperPerennial, 1995. Full text available on www.dorislessing.org).
In 1937 she moved to Salisbury, where she worked as a telephone operator for a year. At nineteen, she married Frank Wisdom, and later had two children. A few years later, feeling trapped in a persona that she feared would destroy her, she left her family, remaining in Salisbury. Soon she was drawn to the like-minded members of the Left Book Club, a group of Communists "who read everything, and who did not think it remarkable to read." Gottfried Lessing was a central member of the group; shortly after she joined, they married and had a son.
During the postwar years, Lessing became increasingly disillusioned with the Communist movement, which she left altogether in 1954. By 1949, Lessing had moved to London with her young son. That year, she also published her first novel, The Grass Is Singing, and began her career as a professional writer.
In June 1995 she received an Honorary Degree from Harvard University. Also in 1995, she visited South Africa to see her daughter and grandchildren, and to promote her autobiography. It was her first visit since being forcibly removed in 1956 for her political views. Ironically, she is welcomed now as a writer acclaimed for the very topics for which she was banished 40 years ago.
In 2001 she was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize in Literature, one of Spain's most important distinctions, for her brilliant literary works in defense of freedom and Third World causes. She also received the David Cohen British Literature Prize.
She was on the shortlist for the first Man Booker International Prize in 2005. In 2007 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
(Extracted from the pamphlet: A Reader's Guide to The Golden Notebook & Under My Skin, HarperPerennial, 1995. Full text available on www.dorislessing.org).
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 10, 2015
As in the political sphere, the child is taught that he is free, a democrat, with a free will and a free mind, lives in a free country, makes his own decisions. At the same time he is a prisoner of the assumptions and dogmas of his time, which he does not question, because he has never been told they exist. By the time a young person has reached the age when he has to choose (we still take it for granted that a choice is inevitable) between the arts and the sciences, he often chooses the arts because he feels that here is "humanity, freedom, choice. He does not know that he is already moulded by a system: he does not know that the choice itself is the result of a false dichotomy rooted in the heart of our culture. Those who do sense this, and who don't wish to subject themselves to further moulding, tend to leave, in a half-unconscious, instinctive attempt to find work where they won't be divided against themselves. With all our institutions, from the police force to academia, from medicine to politics, we give little attention to the people who leave--that process of elimination that goes on all the time and which excludes, very early, those likely to be original and reforming, leaving those attracted to a thing because that is what they are already like. A young policeman leaves the Force saying he doesn't like what he has to do. A young teacher leaves teaching, her idealism snubbed. This social mechanism goes almost unnoticed--yet it is as powerful as any in keeping our institutions rigid and oppressive."
February 1, 2024
Brilliant work
July 3, 2015
A collection of short non-fiction by Doris Lessing. The two most important are the title essay, "The Small Personal Voice", and the preface to a later edition of The Golden Notebook.
The first is that very rare thing, an essay I can agree with almost 100%. It discusses the nature of "committed" fiction and supports socialism and realism, particularly as against "socialist realism" of the Soviet variety. Unfortunately, very few at the time agreed with it, and even sadder, it seems that Doris Lessing herself no longer agrees with much of it, to judge by a recent article by her I read on the Internet.
The preface explains what she intended by her most famous novel, and the ways it was misunderstood. It also contains insights into other things, most notably education, where she makes many of the same points as Rancière makes in The Ignorant Schoolteacher, one of my more recent reads.
The remainder of the book consists of interviews, reviews of other authors (including Olive Schreiner, Vonnegut, and Karen Blixen), and two good but dated articles on Rhodesian politics at the end of British rule.
This book is a good complement to her early novels, and I have added it to my favorites. Unfortunately it seems to be out of print now.
The first is that very rare thing, an essay I can agree with almost 100%. It discusses the nature of "committed" fiction and supports socialism and realism, particularly as against "socialist realism" of the Soviet variety. Unfortunately, very few at the time agreed with it, and even sadder, it seems that Doris Lessing herself no longer agrees with much of it, to judge by a recent article by her I read on the Internet.
The preface explains what she intended by her most famous novel, and the ways it was misunderstood. It also contains insights into other things, most notably education, where she makes many of the same points as Rancière makes in The Ignorant Schoolteacher, one of my more recent reads.
The remainder of the book consists of interviews, reviews of other authors (including Olive Schreiner, Vonnegut, and Karen Blixen), and two good but dated articles on Rhodesian politics at the end of British rule.
This book is a good complement to her early novels, and I have added it to my favorites. Unfortunately it seems to be out of print now.
October 6, 2022
Never read any of her work, but the essays and interviews were fascinating. Interesting take from a commited lifelong socialist on class, society, race, etc.
September 28, 2007
although i've often felt a bit bored reading this writer's fiction, this collection of essays and letters was brilliant. this woman has lived and extraordinary life and done amazing things. definitely high on my list of women i'd like to sit down with.
May 12, 2024
Timeless. Politically important. Then, as now.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews