Doris Lessing A Biography
... ”- Doris Lessing To classify Doris Lessing’s childhood as unhappy would be a vast understatement. Born Doris May Tayler on October 22, 1919, in Persia, now Iran, Doris Lessing was immediately told she was an unwanted child (Klein, 11). Lessing’s parents, Emily Maude McVeagh and Alfred Cook Tayler, met when Tayler was wounded during WWI; McVeagh was his nurse. Both of Lessing’s parents came from dysfunctional, loveless families that left both individuals damaged, and basically incapable of raising children (9). ... Before Doris’s birth, her father, a bank manager was transferred to Kermanshah, Africa (10). ... Doris’s birth was not a happy moment for the Tayler’s. Expecting a boy, they had no name picked out, leaving Doris to be named by the doctor who delivered her. Doris’s mother refused to acknowledge her presence for days (Klien, 12). Unable to nurse, Doris was fed cows milk from birth (12). Due to a misconception about the proper mixing rate of cows milk, Doris was severely undernourished for over a year (12).