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William Golding was born 1911 in Cornwall, England. -
Golding began attending Brasenose College at Oxford in 1930 and spent two years studying science, however in his third year of college he switched his major to literature to follow his passion. -
William graduated college in 1935 from Oxford with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a diploma in education(the photo below is not an actual photo of William Goldberg) -
From 1935 to 1939, Golding worked as a writer, actor, and producer with a small theater in an unfashionable part of London, paying his bills with a job as a social worker. -
In 1939, Golding began teaching English and philosophy in Salisbury at Bishop Wordsworth's School. That same year, he married Ann Brookfield, with whom he had two children. -
William temporarily left teaching in 1940 to join the Royal Navy and fought in World war II. He later stated after spending 5 years in the Navy, “I began to see what people were capable of doing. Anyone who moved through those years without understanding that man produces evil as a bee produces honey, must have been blind or wrong in the head.” (photo below may be inaccurate) -
In 1954, after 21 rejections, Golding published his first and most acclaimed novel, Lord of the Flies. The book is riddled with symbolism, the book set the tone for Golding’s future work, in which he continued to examine man’s internal struggle between good and evil. -
In 1963, the year after Golding retired from teaching, Peter Brook made a film adaptation of the critically acclaimed novel which brought more people to read William's book, making it an even larger success. -
In 1988 he was knighted by England’s Queen Elizabeth II.
In 1990 a new film version of the Lord of the Flies was released, bringing the book to the attention of yet another new generation of readers. -
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. At age 81.