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William Golding

  • Birth of William Gerlard Golding

    Birth of William Gerlard Golding
    William Golding was born September 19, 1911, in Saint Columb Minor, Cornwall, England. He was raised in a 14th-century house next door to a graveyard.
  • Primary school

    Primary school
    William went to the school his father ran, Marlborough Grammar School. When William was just 12 years old, he attempted, unsuccessfully, to write a novel.
  • Major

    Major
    William graduated in 1935 from Brasenose College at Oxford University. He studied English literature and published his first work, a book of poetry aptly entitled Poems.
  • Father's Footsteps

    Father's Footsteps
    Golding took a position teaching English and philosophy at Bishop Wordsworth’s School in Salisbury. Taught unruly young boys who later would be an inspiration for his novel Lord of the Flies.
  • Navy

    Navy
    Golding temporarily abandoned his profession to join the Royal Navy and fight in World War II.
  • WWll end

    WWll end
    Golding went back to teaching and writing.
  • Lofd of the FLies

    Lofd of the FLies
    After 21 rejections, Golding published his first and most acclaimed novel, Lord of the Flies. Lord of the Flies explored the savage side of human nature as the boys, let loose from the constraints of society, brutally turned against one another in the face of an imagined enemy.
  • Award

    Award
    Golding was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize for Literature.
  • Death of Golding

    Death of Golding
    Golding died of a heart attack in Perranarworthal, Cornwall. He was survived by his wife and their two children, David and Judith. After Golding passed away, his completed manuscript for The Double Tongue was published posthumously.