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The Birth of William Golding
William Golding was born on September 19, 1911, in Saint Columb Minor, Cornwall, England. He was raised in a 14th-century house next to a graveyard. His mother was an active suffragette and his father was a schoolmaster. -
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William Golding
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William's first attempt at writing.
William received early access to early education at the school his father ran, Marlborough Grammar School. At the age of 12, William attempted writing a novel, which when he was unsuccessful, he started taking his frustration out on his peers. -
William's education
After primary school, William attended Brasenose College at Oxford University where he studied English literature. In 1934, a year before he graduated, William published his first book titled Poems, which was largely overlooked by critics. -
William's teaching career
In 1935, Golding followed his father's footsteps and took a position teaching English and philosophy at Bishop Wordsworth's School in Salisbury. Golding's experience teaching unruly young boys later served as inspiration for his novel Lord of the Flies. -
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William and World War II
In 1940 Golding temporarily abandoned teaching to assist the Royal Navy in World War II, where he fought battleships at the sinking of Bismarck and fended off submarines and planes. Golding's participation in the war would prove to be fruitful material for his fiction. In 1945, after World War II ended, Golding went back to teaching and writing. -
Lord of the Flies
After 21 rejections, Golding published his first and most acclaimed novel, Lord of the Flies. The book set the tone for Golding's future work, in which he continued to examine man's internal struggle between good and evil. Since publication, the novel had been widely regarded as a classic, worthy of in-depth analysis and discussion in classrooms around the world. -
Lord of the Flies' success
In 1963, the year after Golding retired from teaching, Peter Brook made a film adaptation of critically acclaimed novel. -
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William Golding's Accomplishments
Two decades later, at the age of 73, Golding was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize for Literature. In 1988 he was knighted by England’s Queen Elizabeth II. In 1990 a new film version of the Lord of the Flies was released, bringing the book to the attention of a new generation of readers. -
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Golding's remaining years
Golding spent the last few years of his life quietly living with his wife, Ann Brookfield, at their house near Falmouth, Cornwall, where he continued to toil at his writing. The couple had married in 1939 and had two children, David (b. 1940) and Judith (b. 1945). -
William Golding's Death and later released novels.
On June 19, 1993, Golding died of a heart attack in Perranarworthal, Cornwall. After Golding died, his completed manuscript for The Double Tongue was published posthumously. Among the most successful novels of Golding’s writing career were Rites of Passage, Pincher Martin, Free Fall and The Pyramid. While Golding was mainly a novelist, his body of work also includes poetry, plays, essays and short stories.