The Diary of Good Neighbour

253 pages. A novel by the Nobel Prize-winning author, published under a pseudonym as a stunt, to show the treatment of books by unknown authors. ''I wanted to highlight that whole dreadful process in book publishing that 'nothing succeeds like success,' '' she said in a recent telephone conversation from London. ''If the books had come out in my name, they would have sold a lot of copies and reviewers would have said, 'Oh, Doris Lessing, how wonderful.' As it is, there were almost no reviews, and the books sold about 1,500 copies here and scarcely 3,000 copies each in the United States.''--Lessing, in the New York Times, September 23, 1984. Lessing's long-time British publisher declined to publish either of the two 'Jane Somers' novels before they knew the author was Lessing. First American edition (first printing). Near fine in a dust jacket with minor scuffing to covers and light fading to spine, thus near fine. Signed by the author as Doris Lessing on the title page.