William Golding

Judith Golding (daughter, b. 1945)

> "*I think women are foolish to pretend they are equal to men, they are far superior and always have been.*"
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Sir William Gerald Golding (September 19th, 1911 - June 19th, 1993) was a British novelist, poet and playwright best known as the author of *Lord of the Flies.*

 Originally a teacher of English and philosophy, Golding published his 1954 novel which was critically acclaimed in the following years. He wrote other stories later and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983.

## Biography

### Childhood/School Years

William Gerald Golding was born at his grandparents' house at Saint Columb Minor, Newquay, Cornwall, England, on September 19th, 1911. He was the second son of Alec Golding, a teacher and Mildred Golding, a suffragette. He and his older brother Joseph were raised in a 14th-century house next to a Wiltshire cemetery. Golding was afraid of the gravestones, avoided going near them in the garden where the headstones are and had nightmares of the cellar in the house. He attended the Marlborough Primary School, where his father taught, and received his first education there.

Golding enjoyed reading as a child. Some of his favourite novelists include Jules Verne, H.G. Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs. He attempted to write and publish his own book at 12 years old but failed. He was also known to be a selfish, bratty child and had bullied some of his peers. He claimed that he did it because he said, "I enjoyed hurting people."

After finishing primary school, Golding attended Brasenose College at Oxford University. His father had expected him to become a scientist, but Golding chose to study English literature instead. He was still talented at writing, and while in college, he published a collection of poetry, which critics mostly overlooked.

### Teaching/Royal Navy years

Golding graduated from Oxford in 1935. After working at a settlement house and a theatre company, he eventually followed in his father's footsteps and became a schoolmaster at Bishop's Wordsworth School in Salisbury.

In 1940, at the outbreak of WWII, Golding temporarily left his job position and enlisted in the Royal Navy. He would spend the next six years afloat, where he was involved in the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck and participated in the Normandy D-Day invasion. During his Navy years, he developed a love for sailing and the ocean. He was also affected by the true evil "nature" he had experienced in his perspective while fighting against his enemies and with his allies. This would become the inspiration for his future novel *Lord of the Flies*.

After the end of the war, Golding returned to England, where he resumed teaching until his retirement in 1961.

### Lord of the Flies/Writing Career

While in the Navy, Golding enjoyed reading and improving his knowledge of Greek mythology and history. Following the war and when he was back to teaching, Golding started to focus on creating his writing career. He wrote three novels that were never published, but in 1954 he wrote and published his famous work *Lord of the Flies*. 21 publishers originally rejected the book before being accepted by Faber and Faber.

*Lord of the Flies*, which tells the tale of a group of stranded boys on an island who turn into savages, received mixed reviews upon publication but would later become a bestseller within the next decade. Golding wrote other novels later on, such as *The Inheritors* (1955), *Pincher Martin* (1957), and *The Pyramid* (1967). He also wrote a handful of novellas, short stories, and plays.

### Family

Golding married Ann Brookfield in 1939, and they had two children: a son named David (b. 1940) and a daughter named Judith (b. 1945).

### Later Years

Following his retirement from teaching, Golding lived a quiet life in Falmouth, Cornwall, with his family, where he continued his full-time writing. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983 and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1988.

Golding died of heart failure on June 19th, 1993, at his home in Perranarworthal, Cornwall, at 81 years old. He was laid to rest at Holy Trinity Church in Bowerchalke, Wiltshire. The draft of his novel, *The Double Tongue*,was published posthumously in 1995.