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Birth
William Golding was born in Cornwall, England. His mother was Mildred, an active suffragette, and his father, Alec, was a schoolteacher. -
Early Life
Raised in a 14th-century home, he attended Brasenose College at Oxford. He initially studied science, but continued on to his true interest, literature. -
Early Career
After graduating from Oxford with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a diploma in education, he worked as a writer, actor, and producer in a small theater in London, paying his bills with a job as a social worker. -
Teaching
After he worked in the theater, William Golding became a teacher and taught English and Philosophy in Salisbury at Bishop Wordsworth's School. -
Family
The same year Golding began teaching, he married a woman named Ann Brookfield and had two children. -
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War
For five years golding spent time in the Navy fighting WWII, and from there he describes the barbaric cruelty and evil that defines mankind. He says that "man produces evil, as a bee produces honey." Most of his inspiration sources from wartime and his hatred for evil and humanities "innate desire for domination." -
Lord of the Flies
After serving the navy until 1945, he started writing many novels about his wartime experiences, and the barbaric nature of humans. He then wrote a novel that was published despite having been rejected by 21 publishers, titled Lord of the Flies. This novel was an examination of the duality of savagery and civilization in humans. -
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Later Novels
Until 1989, Golding continued to write novels. Some of his works include The Inheritors, which was published in 1955, then followed Pincher Martin, which was published in 1956, and also Free Fall, which was published in 1959. There were also many more novels too. -
Legacy
Golding's greatest honor, the Nobel Prize for Literature, was awarded in 1983. -
Death
On June 19, 1993, Golding died in Perranarworthal, Cornwall, England.