URGENT -- Nobel prize-winning novelist Doris Lessing dead at 94

USPA News - British author Doris Lessing, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2007 for "subjecting a divided civilization to scrutiny through skepticism, fire and visionary power," died at her home in England on Sunday, her publisher said. She was 94. Lessing passed away peacefully at her home in London in the early morning hours of Sunday.

"Her family has asked for privacy at this time," publisher HarperCollins said in a statement that did not disclose the cause of death of the author, who produced dozens of novels, short stories, essays and poems. Her long-time friend and agent, Jonathan Clowes, said he was "greatly saddened" by the death of Lessing, whose best-known works include The Golden Notebook, Memoirs of a Survivor and The Summer Before the Dark. "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," he said.