( CNN ) -- Author Doris Lessing , who won a Nobel Prize for her life of literature , died Sunday at age 94 , her publisher , HarperCollins , said . The British author was best known for `` The Golden Notebook , '' which is considered by many critics to be one of the most important feminist novels ever written . Lessing `` passed away peacefully '' at her London home early Sunday , according to HarperCollins spokeswoman Susanna Frayn . Lessing began writing at 7 , which she said was not the result of inspiration , but her innate capacity . `` I was born to write , as other people are born to paint ... that 's all , '' she said . `` Writers tell stories . This is what we do . '' Lessing was awarded the Nobel prize in literature in 2007 at the age of 88 . The Swedish academy called her `` the epicist of the female experience '' who had `` subjected a divided civilisation to scrutiny . '' `` She is survived by her daughter Jean and granddaughters Anna and Susannah , '' the publisher said . `` Her family has asked for privacy at this time . '' Lessing was born to British parents in Persia ( now Iran ) . Much of her fiction was based on her experiences growing up in Southern Rhodesia ( now Zimbabwe ) , where she moved as a young child . Her mother raised her on storytelling , reading stories that Lessing gave her own spin when sharing them with her younger brother . These childhood stories evolved into the powerful fiction that made up her 50 books . Lessing , who dropped out of a school in the Rhodesian capital , Salisbury , when she was just 13 , developed her writing skills by reading the works of Dickens , Tolstoy , D.H. Lawrence and Dostoevsky . `` I educated myself by reading , '' she said . In her Nobel Prize acceptance speech , Lessing spoke of the desperate struggle for knowledge of people in some developing countries . `` Not long ago a friend who had been in Zimbabwe told me about a village where people had not eaten for three days , but they were still talking about books and how to get them , about education . '' She left home at 15 to work as a nursemaid but also started writing stories and later sold two of them to magazines in South Africa . Her first novel , `` The Grass is Singing , '' was in her suitcase when she moved to London in 1949 , the HarperCollins statement said . Published in 1950 , it examines the tension between oppressed black Africans and white colonials . Lessing `` broke new ground '' in 1962 with `` The Golden Notebook , '' the publisher said . HarperCollins editor Nicholas Pearson called it `` a handbook to a whole generation . '' `` But her many books have spoken to us in so many various ways , '' Pearson said . `` Doris has been called a visionary and , to be in her company , which was a privilege I had as her editor towards the end of her writing life , was to experience something of that . Even in very old age she was always intellectually restless , reinventing herself , curious about the changing world around us , always completely inspirational . We 'll miss her hugely . '' `` She was a wonderful writer with a fascinating and original mind ; it was a privilege to work for her and we shall miss her immensely , '' longtime friend and agent Jonathan Clowes said Sunday . `` Doris Lessing was a one of the great writers of our age , '' HarperCollins UK CEO Charlie Redmayne said . `` She was a compelling storyteller with a fierce intellect and a warm heart who was not afraid to fight for what she believed in . It was an honor for HarperCollins to publish her . '' People we lost in 2013 .
NEW : HarperCollins CEO says Lessing had `` a fierce intellect and a warm heart '' Lessing `` passed away peacefully '' at her Zimbabwe home , publisher says . `` I was born to write , '' Lessing said . Dickens won `` Not long ago in literature at 1962 .