THE newly refurbished Harare City Library is set to become the home of part of the 3 000 books from the late literary giant Doris Lessing’s library following an agreement struck between the beneficiaries and one of her local agencies, the Africa Community Publishing and Development Trust.
PHILLIP CHIDAVAENZI SENIOR REPORTER
In a statement issued yesterday by Roger Stringer, the liaison officer for the Lessing family, the bulk of the books would be brought to Harare in honour of her memory and legacy in Zimbabwe.
“The beneficiaries’ (the Cowen and Diski families) donation constitutes approximately 3 000 books, both fiction and non-fiction, which will appeal to a variety of interests and represents many authors from around the world, including African writers,” Stringer said.
He said the books would be handed over to Harare City Library by members of Lessing’s family at a special event on November 29, exactly a year after Lessing’s funeral in London where she died at her West Hampstead home on November 17, 2013.
Stringer said Lessing considered Zimbabweans to be among the most passionate readers in the world and against that backdrop, the beneficiaries of her literary estate agreed that the Harare library “would be an appropriate home for the collection”.
Stringer, however, said a special collection of Lessing’s books that have particular biographical interest to researchers has been retained by the University of East Anglia, another beneficiary of the estate, while a small number of books with sentimental value would be retained by the Cowen and Diski families.
Following consultations in Zimbabwe, the beneficiaries, and the library have welcomed the donation.
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Professor Christopher Bigsby of the University of East Anglia and the Cowen and Diski families indicated that the books’ arrival in the country would have given Lessing pleasure as many Zimbabweans would now have access to her unique collection, according to Stringer.
Lessing, who was born on October, 1919, lived in the then Rhodesia between 1924 and 1949. She returned in 1956, after which she was declared a prohibited immigrant due to her outspoken criticism of the injustices of the racist Rhodesian regime.
She was to come back to Zimbabwe in 1982, and visited the country regularly from 1988, nurturing two initiatives which opened up the lives of isolated rural communities by providing opportunities for reading and learning. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2007.
