William Golding

Sir William Gerald Golding (September 19 1911 – 19 June 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 the first book of the trilogy To the Ends of the Earth.

Early life

Golding was born on 19 September, 1911 in St. Columb Minor, Cornwall, England. He started writing at the age of seven. His Cornish background has rarely been commented on, but he learned the Cornish language as a young man.

His father was a local school master and intellectual, who held radical convictions in politics and a strong faith in science. His mother, Mildred, was a supporter of the British Suffrage movement. The family moved to Marlborough and Golding attended Marlborough Grammar School. He later attended Oxford University as an undergraduate at Brasenose College, where he studied Natural Sciences and English Literature. His first book, a collection of poems, appeared a year before Golding received his Bachelor of Arts.

Marriage

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

Military service

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

Writing success

In 1961, his successful books allowed Golding to leave his teaching post and spend 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 Gaia Hypothesis, it was Golding who suggested calling it after the Greek personification of the earth. He was knighted in 1988.

Death

Sir William Golding died of heart failure in his home at Perranarworthal, near Truro, Cornwall, on June 19, 1993. He was buried in Holy Trinity churchyard, Bowerchalke, Wiltshire, England[1]. He left the draft of a novel, The Double Tongue, which was published posthumously (Faber, 1996).

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 include Darkness Visible (1979), The Paper Men (1984), and the historical sea trilogy To the Ends of the Earth which comprised the Booker Prize-winning Rites of Passage (1981), Close Quarters (1987), and Fire Down Below (1989).

Major works

• Poems (1934)
• Lord of the Flies (1954) ISBN 0-571-06366-7
• The Inheritors (1955) ISBN 0-571-06529-5
• Pincher Martin (1956)
• The Brass Butterfly (1958)
• Free Fall (1959)
• The Spire (1964) ISBN 0-571-06492-2
• 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 (trilogy)
  • Rites of Passage (1980),
  • Close Quarters (1987) and
  • Fire Down Below (1989)

External links

• The Spire a sixth form perspective at William Howard School
• 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
• Faber and Faber - UK publisher of William Golding
• William Golding Ltd Website of Golding family.
• Last Words An account of Golding's last evening by D.M. Thomas - Guardian - Saturday 10 June 2006 (Review Section)

Nobel Prize in Literature: Laureates (1976-2000)

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