-
Birth Date
William Golding was born on September 19, 1911, in Saint Columb Minor, Cornwall, England. He was raised in a 14th-century house next door to a graveyard. -
Education
Golding began attending Brasenose College at Oxford in 1930 and spent two years studying science, in deference to his father's beliefs. In his third year, however, he switched to the literature program, following his true interests. -
Period: to
Career
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. -
Education (Continued)
In 1935, he graduated from Oxford with a Bachelor of Arts in English and a diploma in education. -
Career
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. -
Period: to
Royal Navy
Golding spent the better part of the next six years on a boat, except for a seven-month stint in New York, where he assisted Lord Cherwell at the Naval Research Establishment. In 1945, after World War II had ended, Golding went back to teaching and writing. -
First Book to be Published
Golding’s most famous novel, The Lord of the Flies, was originally titled The Strangers Within and was published twenty-nine years before he won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Lord of the Flies was rejected by twenty-one publishers before acceptance by Faber and Faber. -
Beginning Writer's Life
With the exception of five years he spent in the Royal Navy during World War II, he remained in the teaching position until 1961 when he left Bishop Wordsworth's School to write full time. -
Nobel Prize
William Golding won the Nobel Prize for his book The Lord of the Flies -
Death
On June 19, 1993, he died in Perranarworthal, Cornwall, England.
