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William Golding was born on September 19, 1911, in Saint Columb Minor, Cornwall, England. His mother, Mildred, was an active suffragette who fought for women’s right to vote. His father, Alex, worked as a schoolmaster.
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A year before he graduated college, William published his first book. It was a poem titled Poems.
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In 1935 Golding took a position teaching English and philosophy at Bishop Wordsworth’s School in Salisbury. Golding’s experience teaching unruly young boys would later serve as inspiration for his novel Lord of the Flies.
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Although passionate about teaching from day one, in 1940 Golding temporarily abandoned the profession to join the Royal Navy and fight in World War II. While in the Royal Navy, Golding developed a lifelong romance with sailing and the sea. After witnessing war he got inspiration to write a book. He came back to teaching in 1945
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In 1954, after 21 rejections, Golding published his first and most acclaimed novel, Lord of the Flies. The theme would later occur in his other novels, the theme to examine man's internal struggle between good and evil. Since published it has been regarded as a classic.
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In 1963 after Golding retried from teaching, Pete Brook made a film adaptation to his novel "Lord of the Flies". Which brought in a ton of new readers.
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Two decades later, at the age of 73, Golding was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize for Literature. In 1988 he was knighted by England’s Queen Elizabeth II.
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Golding spent the last few years of his life quietly living with his wife, Ann Brookfield, at their house near Falmouth, Cornwall, where he continued to toil at his writing. On June 19, 1993, Golding died of a heart attack in Perranarworthal, Cornwall. After Golding died, his completed manuscript for The Double Tongue was published posthumously.