From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Not to be confused with the American author
William Goldman.
Sir William Gerald Golding (September
19, 1911
– June
19, 1993)
was a
British novelist, poet and winner of the
Nobel Prize for Literature (1983),
best known for his work
Lord of the Flies. He was also awarded the
Booker prize for literature in
1980, for
his novel
The Rites of Passage.
Early life
Golding was born on
September 19,
1911 at
St Columb Minor, a village near
Newquay,
Cornwall,
England.
He started writing at the age of seven. His Cornish background has
rarely been commented on, but he came to learn
Cornish as a young man.
His father was a local school master and an intellectual, who had
radical convictions in politics and a strong faith in science. The
family moved to
Marlborough and he attended Marlborough Grammar School. He later
went to
Oxford University (Brasenose
College) in
1930,
where he studied
natural sciences and
English language. His first book, a collection of poems, appeared
a year before Golding received his
BA.
He married Ann Brookfield, an analytical chemist, in
1939. He
became a teacher of English and philosophy at
Bishop Wordsworth's School in
Salisbury.
During
World War II he served in the
Royal Navy and was involved in the sinking of
Germany's
mightiest
battleship, the
Bismarck. He participated in the invasion of
Normandy on
D-Day
and at war's end went back to teaching and writing.
In 1961
his successful books allowed Golding to leave his teaching post and he
spent a year as writer-in-residence at
Hollins College in
Virginia. He then became a full-time writer. He was a fellow
villager of
James Lovelock in Wiltshire and when Lovelock was explaining his
theory, Golding suggested calling it
Gaia
after the Greek earth Goddess.
Fiction
Golding's often allegorical
fiction
makes broad use of allusions to
classical literature,
mythology, and
Christian
symbolism. Although no distinct thread unites his novels and his
technique varies, Golding deals principally with evil and emerges with
what has been characterized as a kind of dark optimism. Golding's
first novel,
Lord of the Flies (1954;
film, 1963
and 1990),
introduced one of the recurrent themes of his fiction—the conflict
between humanity's innate barbarism and the civilizing influence of
reason.
The Inheritors (1955)
reaches into prehistory, advancing the thesis that mankind's
evolutionary ancestors, "the fire-builders," triumphed over a gentler
race as much by violence and deceit as by natural superiority. In
Pincher Martin (1956)
and Free Fall (1959),
Golding explores fundamental problems of existence, such as survival
and human freedom, using dreamlike narratives and flashbacks. The
Spire (1964)
is an
allegory concerning the protagonist's obsessive determination to
build a great cathedral spire regardless of the consequences.
Golding's later novels have not won the praise his earlier works
achieved. They include Darkness Visible (1979)
and the historical sea trilogy Rites of Passage (1981),
Close Quarters (1987),
and Fire Down Below (1989).
Later life
He received a knighthood from
Queen Elizabeth II in
1988.
Sir William Golding died of heart failure in his home at
Perranarworthal, near
Truro,
Cornwall on
June 9,
1993, and
was buried in Holy Trinity churchyard,
Bowerchalke,
Wiltshire,
England[1].
Major works
[trilogy] -
Rites of Passage (1980), Close Quarters (1987) and
Fire Down Below (1989)