William Golding

Not to be confused with the American author William Goldman.

Sir William Gerald Golding (September 19 1911 – June 19 1993) was a British novelist, poet and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1983), best known for his work Lord of the Flies. He was also awarded the Booker prize for literature in 1980, for his novel Rites of Passage.

Early life

Golding was born on September 19, 1911 at St Columb Minor, a village near Newquay, Cornwall, England. He started writing at the age of seven. His Cornish background has rarely been commented on, but he came to learn Cornish as a young man.

His father was a local school master and an intellectual, who had radical convictions in politics and a strong faith in science. The family moved to Marlborough and he attended Marlborough Grammar School. He later went to Oxford University (Brasenose College) in 1930, where he studied natural sciences and English language. His first book, a collection of poems, appeared a year before Golding received his BA.

He married Ann Brookfield, an analytical chemist, in 1939. He became a teacher of English and philosophy at Bishop Wordsworth's School in Salisbury.

During World War II he served in the Royal Navy and was involved in the sinking of Germany's mightiest battleship, the Bismarck. He participated in the invasion of Normandy on D-Day and at war's end went back to teaching and writing.

In 1961 his successful books allowed Golding to leave his teaching post and he spent a year as writer-in-residence at Hollins College in Virginia. He then became a full-time writer. He was a fellow villager of James Lovelock in Wiltshire and when Lovelock was explaining his theory, Golding suggested calling it Gaia after the Greek earth Goddess.

Fiction

Golding's often allegorical fiction makes broad use of allusions to classical literature, mythology, and Christian symbolism. Although no distinct thread unites his novels and his technique varies, Golding deals principally with evil and emerges with what has been characterized as a kind of dark optimism. Golding's first novel, Lord of the Flies (1954; film, 1963 and 1990), introduced one of the recurrent themes of his fiction—the conflict between humanity's innate barbarism and the civilizing influence of reason. The Inheritors (1955) reaches into prehistory, advancing the thesis that mankind's evolutionary ancestors, "the fire-builders," triumphed over a gentler race as much by violence and deceit as by natural superiority. In Pincher Martin (1956) and Free Fall (1959), Golding explores fundamental problems of existence, such as survival and human freedom, using dreamlike narratives and flashbacks. The Spire (1964) is an allegory concerning the protagonist's obsessive determination to build a great cathedral spire regardless of the consequences. Golding's later novels have not won the praise his earlier works achieved. They include Darkness Visible (1979) and the historical sea trilogy Rites of Passage (1981), Close Quarters (1987), and Fire Down Below (1989).

Later life

He received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in 1988.

Sir William Golding died of heart failure in his home at Perranarworthal, near Truro, Cornwall on June 9, 1993, and was buried in Holy Trinity churchyard, Bowerchalke, Wiltshire, England ^*.

Major works

Poems (1934)
Lord of the Flies (1954) ISBN 0571063667
The Inheritors (1955) ISBN 0571065295
Pincher Martin (1956)
The Brass Butterfly (1958)
Free Fall (1959)
The Spire (1964) ISBN 0571064922
The Hot Gates (1965)
The Pyramid (1967)
The Scorpion God (1971)
Darkness Visible (1979)
A Moving Target (1982)
The Paper Men (1984)
An Egyptian Journal (1985)
To the Ends of the Earth
Rites of Passage (1980),
Close Quarters (1987) and
Fire Down Below (1989)

External links

Thinking as a Hobby Essay by William Golding (PDF)
Golding's Life and work reviewed at the Educational Paperback Association
Biography of William Golding at the Nobel Prize website
^* Interview by Mary Lynn Scott- Universal Pessimist, Cosmic Optimist
William Golding Ltd Website of Golding family.

Gourt Home::Gourt :: William Golding

Early life

Fiction

Later life

Major works

External links