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Birth
On this day in the house known as Karenza, the marvelous writer known as William Golding was born in Cornwall, England. His father (Alec Golding) was a science master, and his mother (Mildrid Curnoe) was a feminist. -
Early Life
He went to the school that his father ran, which was the Marlborough Grammar School. He attempted to write a novel at the age of 12, but this was a big failure. This led him to take out his anger onto his fellow peers. He became a bully and even said that he enjoyed hurting people. This gave him ideas for characterization for characters in his future hit novel. -
Education
He attended Brasenose College at Oxford in 1930. He studied science for two years, but switched to the literature program during his third year. He yearned to write poetry all of his life. He wrote multiple poems during his time at Oxford. A volume of his poems was published as part of Macmillan's Contemporary Poets series. In 1935, he graduated from Oxford with a Bachelor of Arts in English ad a diploma in education. -
First Works
A year before graduating, Golding published his first collection of poetry. Unfortunately, this collection was overlooked by critics when it first come out. -
Ealy career
In this short timespan, Golding had tried many careers. He worked as a writer, actor, a producer (he owned his own theater), and as a social worker. He also worked as a teacher for a while. This job later very heavily influenced his hit book "Lord of the Flies" -
Royal Navy
His five years spent in the royal navy had a major impact on his life. This short time showed him the true cruelty of reality. He saw many things that he would not be able to recover from. These moments inspired some of his future works, and his infamous quote "man produces evil, as a bee produces honey" -
Lord of the Flies
This was most definitely the greatest accomplishment William has under his name. It was the first novel he published after being rejected by 21 publishers. Although it was not a great success at the time (selling fewer than three thousand copies in the United States during 1955 before going out of print), it soon went on to become a best seller. It has been adapted to film twice in English. -
Knight
On this day, William became "Sir William Gerald Golding", as he was knighted by the queen of England. He became a member of the Royal Society of Literature -
Death
On this unfortunate day, Golding had passed away of heart failure. With his legacy, he left behind a draft of his book, "The Double Tongue" which was eventually published.
