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William Golding was born September 19, 1911, in Saint Columb Minor, Cornwall, England.He was raised in a 14th-century house next door to a graveyard. In 1935 he started teaching English and philosophy in Salisbury.
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William attended Brasenose College at Oxford University. His father hoped he would become a scientist, but William studied English literature instead. In 1934, a year before he graduated, William published his first work, a book of poetry aptly entitled Poems.
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In 1935, he graduated from Oxford with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a diploma in education.
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In 1939, Golding began teaching English and philosophy in Salisbury at Bishop Wordsworth's School.
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In 1940 Golding left his teaching profession to join the Royal Navy and fight in World War II.
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In 1954, after 21 rejections, Golding published his first and most acclaimed novel, Lord of the Flies.
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In 1963, the year after Golding retired from teaching, Peter Brook made a film of the novel, "Lord of the Flies."
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William was awarded the Booker Prize for a novel called Rites of Passage. It became his sea trilogy.
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Golding was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize for Literature.
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In 1988 William Golding was knighted by England’s Queen Elizabeth II.
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On June 19, 1993, Golding died of a heart attack in Perranarworthal, Cornwall.
