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Birth
William Golding was born on 19 September 1911 in Cornwall, England. Son to Mildred who supported the British suffragette movement, and Alec who was a school teacher and advocate of rationalism, who he was heavily influenced by. -
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College
William Golding attended Brasenose College at Oxford from 1930 to 1935, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a diploma in education. In these years he was interested and inspired by Shakespeares works which led to Golding publishing a poem in Macmillians Contemporary Poets series, which demonstrates his distrust of rationalism. -
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Career
From 1935 to 1939, Golding worked as a writer, actor, and producer with a small theater in London. His source of income came from being a social worker. The theater was his strongest literary influence, as he performed Greek tragedians and Shakespeare`s plays. -
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Career
In 1939 Golding married Ann Brookfield in which he had 2 children. In the same year he was in Salisbury at Bishop Wordsworth's School teaching English and philosophy. He remained in the teaching position until 1961 when he left Bishop Wordsworth's School to write full time. -
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WWII Experience
From 1940 to 1945 Golding spent 5 years serving in the navy during WWII. This heavily impacted him as he experienced the cruelty and barbarity humankind is capable of. This strengthened his belief in rationalism and heavily influenced his poems and novels as he wrote about his wartime experience stating that "man produces evil, as a bee produces honey." -
First Published Novel
In 1954 Golding`s published his first novel called Lord of the Flies, which he is best known for. It was inspired by his experience working with unruly boys as a teacher and his perception of humanity when he served in WWII. He had written novels prior to Lord of the Flies, however it was his first novel published after being rejected by 21 publishers. -
Noble Prize
1983 won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his parables of the human condition and perception of humanity. -
Death
Golding died in Cornwall in 1993.