Doris Lessing, one of the 20th century's most influential and honoured novelists, died on November 17, 2013, at the age of 94. A Nobel Prize in Literature winner for her lifetime contribution to literature, Lessing was born on October 22, 1919 in Iran to British parents of South African origin. She left school at the age of 13 and moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) alone in 1949, where she published her first novel, The Grass is Singing, in 1950. Lessing is best known for her groundbreaking work The Golden Notebook (1962), which explored the experiences of a woman in mid-century England and pushed the boundaries of traditional narrative. Her works often gave voice to the experience and plight of women and other minorities. Throughout her lifetime, she received numerous accolades, including the David Cohen Prize for British Literature in 1991, Commander of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1986, a Companion of Honour in 1999, the S.T. Dupont Golden Pen Award in 2003, and the German Friedrich Nietzsche Prize in 2007. The 2007 Nobel Prize citation declared her works a "epic and psychological vision of humanity". A fierce and poetic advocate for human rights, Doris Lessing left behind a powerful body of work that will live on in the minds of her readers and in the cultural landscape.