BIOGRAPHY
William Golding was born in Cornwall in 1911 and was
educated at Marlborough Grammar School and at Brasenose College, Oxford. Apart
from writing, his past and present occupations include being a schoolmaster, a
lecturer, an actor, a sailor, and a musician. His father was a schoolmaster and
his mother was a suffragette. He was brought up to be a scientist, but
revolted. After two years at Oxford he read English literature instead, and
became devoted to Anglo-Saxon. He spent five years at Oxford. Published a
volume of poems in 1935. Taught at Bishop Wordsworth's School, Salisbury.
Joined the Royal Navy in 1940 and spent six years afloat, except for seven
months in New York and six months helping Lord Cherwell at the Naval Research
Establishment. He saw action against battleships (at the sinking of the
Bismarck), submarines and aircraft. Finished as Lieutenant in command of a
rocket ship. He was present off the French coast for the D-Day invasion, and
later at the island of Walcheren. After the war he returned to teaching, and
began to write again. Lord of the Flies, his first novel, was published
in 1954. It was filmed by Peter Brook in 1963. His other books are:
|
The
Inheritors (novel) 1955 |
|
Pincher
Martin (novel) 1956 |
|
The Brass
Butterfly (play) 1958 |
|
Free Fall (novel) 1959 |
|
The Spire (novel) 1964 |
|
The Hot
Gates (essays) 1965 |
|
The Pyramid (novel) 1967 |
|
The Scorpion
God (three short
novels) 1971 |
|
Darkness
Visible (novel) 1979 |
|
Rites of
Passage (novel) 1980 |
|
A Moving
Target (essays and
autobiographical pieces) 1982 |
|
The Paper
Men (novel) 1984 |
|
An Egyptian
Journal 1985 |
|
Close
Quarters (novel) 1987 |
|
Fire Down
Below (novel) 1989 |
In 1980 he won the 'Booker Prize'
for his novel Rites of Passage. He retired from teaching in 1962. After
that, he lived in Wiltshire, listing his recreations as music, sailing,
archaeology and classical Greek.
William Golding died in 1993.
From Nobel
Lectures, Literature 1981-1990, Editor-in-Charge Tore Frängsmyr, Editor
Sture Allén, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 1993
Searched and seaved 02 12 2008
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