Female : Poet, Novelist, Playwright and short story writer. Lived on a farm in Rhodesia 1924-49 before settling in England. Married Frank Charles Wisdom 1939 (divorced 1943). Married Gottfried Lessing 1945 (divorced 1949)

Nationality : Southern Rhodesian Place of Birth : Kermanshah, Persia

Date of Birth : 1919

Pseudonyms : Jane Somers

1950-1960
The Grass is Singing (1950 Michael Joseph) (1950 Crowell)
This was the Old Chief's Country (1951 MJ) (1952 Crowell) - ss
The Children of Violence Sequence
Martha Quest (1952 MJ)
A Proper Marriage (1954 Michael Joseph 12/6) (1964 S & S)
A Ripple from the Storm (1958 MJ)
Landlocked (1965 MacGibbon & Kee) (1966 S & S)
The Four-Gated City (1969 MacGibbon & Kee) (1969 Knopf)
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Five : Short Novels (1953 MJ)
Retreat to Innocence (1956 MJ)
The Habit of Loving (1957 MacGibbon & Kee) (1958 Crowell) - ss
Each His Own Wilderness (in "New English Dramatists" 1959 Penguin)
Fourteen Poems (1959 Scorpion Press) - 50 signed
Going Home (1957 MJ) (1968 Ballantine)
In Pursuit of the English : A Documentary (1960 MacGibbon & Kee)
(in US "Portrait of the English" - 1961 S & S)

1961-1970
The Golden Notebook (1962 MJ) (1962 S & S)
Play with a Tiger (1962 MJ)
A Man and Two Women (1963 MacGibbon & Kee) (1963 S & S) - ss
African Stories (1964 MJ) (1965 S & S)
The Black Madonna (1966 Panther) - pb - ss
Winter in July (1966 Panther) - ss
Particularly Cats (1967 MJ) (1967 S & S)
Nine African stories (1968 Longman) - pb. - ss

1971-1982
Briefing for a Descent into Hell (1971 Cape) (1973 Knopf)
The Story of a Non-Marrying Man (1972 Cape)
(in US as "The Temptation of Jack Orkney" 1972 Knopf)
This Was the Old Chief's Country : Vol 1 of Collected African Stories (1973 MJ)
The Sun Between their Feet : Vol 2 of Collected African Stories (1973 MJ)
The Summer before the Dark (1973 Cape) (1973 Knopf)
Play With a Tiger (in "Plays by and About Women" 1973 Random House)
The Singing Door (in "Second Playbill 2" 1973 Hutchinson)
A Small Personal Voice (1974 Knopf, US) - pieces
A Small Personal Voice : Essays, Reviews & Interviews (1974 Knopf)
The Memoirs of a Survivor (1974 Octagon Press £2.95) (1975 Knopf)
[Filmed in 1981]
To Room Nineteen : Collected Stories Vol 1 (1978 Cape) (1978 Knopf)
The Temptation of Jack Orkney : Collected Stories Vol 2 (1978 Cape)
Canopus in Argos : Archives Series
Re : Colonised Planet 5 - Shikasta (1979 Cape) (1979 Knopf)
The Marriages between Zones 2, 3, 4 & 5 (1980 Cape) (1980 Knopf)
The Sirian Experiments (1981 Cape) (1981 Knopf)
The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 (1982 Cape) (1982 Knopf)
Documents Relating to the Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire (1983 Cape) (1983 Knopf)
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1983-1990
The Diary of a Good Neighbour (1983 MJ) (1983 Knopf) - by Jane Somers
If the Old Could .. (1984 MJ) (1984 Knopf) - Jane Somers
The Diaries of Jane Somers (1984 MJ)
The Good Terrorist (1985 Cape) (1985 Knopf)
Prisons We Choose to Live Inside (1986 CBC Canada) (1987 Cape) (1987 Harper)
The Wind Blows Away Our Words, & Other Documents Relating to Afghanistan (1987 Pan)
(1987 Vintage)
The Fifth Child (1988 Cape £9.95) (1988 Knopf)
The Doris Lessing Reader (1988 Cape)
Three Stories (1988 Eurographica, Helsinki) - 350 signed
Particularly Cats and More Cats(1989 M Joseph)

After 1991
London Observed : Stories & Sketches (1992 Harper Collins)
(1992 Harper Collins US as "The Real Thing" )
African Laughter (1993 Harper Collins £16.99)
Putting the Questions Differently : Interviews with Doris Lessing 1964-1994 (1994 Ontario)
Under My Skin : Vol 1 of My Autobiography, to 1949 (1994 Harper Collins £20)
(1996 Flamingo pb £7.99)
Playing the Game (1995 Harper Collins)
Love Again : A Novel (1996 Harper Collins £15.99)
Walking in the Shade : Vol 2 of My Autobiography (1997 Harper Collins £20)
Mara and Darn : An Adventure (1999 Flamingo)
Ben, in the World (2000 Flamingo £16.99)
The Sweetest Dream (2001 Flamingo £16.99)
The Grandmothers; Victoria and the Staveneys; The Reason For It; A Love Child
(2003 Harper Collins £15.99)
Time Bites (2004 Fourth Estate £20)

READING
E T Bruek : Doris Lessing - A Bibliography (intro by Lessing) (1984 PP, London)