English novelist who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983. The choise was unexpected, because from the English writers novelist Graham Greene (1904-1991) was considered the strongest candidate.

William Golding was born in the village of St. Columb Minor in Cornwall. His father was a schoolmaster with radical convictions in politics and strong faith in science. Golding started writing at the age of seven, but following the wished of his parents he studied studied natural sciences and English at Brasenose College, Oxford. His first book, a collection of poems appeared in 1934, a year before receiving his B.A.

After graduation Golding became a settlement house worker, and also wrote plays in London. In 1939 he moved to Salisbury, where he began teaching English at Bishop Wordsworth's School. During World War II he served in the Royal Navy, taking part in the Normandy invasion.

In Salinbury Golding wrote four books, but did not get them published. His novel LORD OF THE FLIES was turned down by twenty-one publishes, until it finally appeared in 1954. The book became immediate success in Britain and bestseller among American readers in the late 1950s. His breakthrough novel was followed by THE INHERITORS (1955) depicting the extermination of Neanderthal man by Homo Sapiens, PINCHER MARTIN (1956), story of a naval officer, who faces death on his torpedoed ship, and FREE FALL (1959), which is set in contemporary society.

Golding resigned in 1961 from teaching and devoted himself entirely to writing. His works from the historical novel THE SPERE (1964) devoloped then in two directions: the metaphysical with the theme of the fall from childlike innocence into guilt, and the social without mythical substructure.

Among Golding's later works is trilogy RITES OF PASSAGE (1980), CLOSE QARTERS (1987, and FIRE DOWN BELOW (1989). His best known works is Lord of the Flies, which has been translated into many languages and filmed in 1963 and 1990. It is an ironic comment on R.M. Ballantyne's Coral Island, describing of a group of childred, who are evacuated from Britain because of a nuclear war. Their airplane crashes on an uninhabitated island, and all the adults are killed. The boys create their own society, which gradually degenerates from democratic, rational, and moral community to tyrannical, bloodthirsty, and evil. Golding's view is pessimistic: human nature is inherently violent, which reflects the mood of the post-war and post-Hitler years and comments the 19th optimism of progress and education. - SEE: Daniel Defoe and Robinsonade, a story of a person marooned on a desert island.

William Golding was knighted in 1988. He died in Perranarworthal on June 19, 1993.

For further reading: The Novels of William Golding by H.S. Babb (1973); W. Golding: Lord of the Flies by J. Whitley (1970); William Goldin: a Critical Study by I. Gregor and M. Kinkead-Weekes (1967); William Golding by S. Medcalf (1975)

POEMS, 1934
LORD OF THE FLIES, 1954 - Kärpästen herra - film 1963, dir. by Peter Brook; remake 1990, directed for American tv-savvy kids
INHERITORS, 1955 - Perilliset
PINCHER MARTIN, 1956
THE BRASS BUTTERFLY, 1958 (play)
FREE FALL, 1960 - Vapaa putoaminen
THE ANGLO-SAXON, 1962
THE SPIRE, 1964
THE HOT GATES, 1965
THE PYRAMID, 1967
THE SCORPION GOD, 1971
DARKNESS VISIBLE, 1979 - Näkyvä pimeys
RITES OF PASSAGE, 1980 - Merimatka Booker Prize
A MOVING TARGET, 1982
THE PAPER MEN, 1984 - Paperimiehet
AN EGYPTIAN JOURNAL, 1985
CLOSE QUARTES, 1987
FIRE DOWN BELOW, 1989 - republished under the general title TO THE END OF THE EARTH in 1991