William Golding (1911-1993) - in full Sir Willam Gerald Golding
English novelist who received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983. The choice was unexpected, because the internationally famous novelist Graham Greene (1904-1991) was considered the strongest candidate from the English writers. In many works Golding has revealed the dark places of human heart, when isolated individuals or small groups are pushed into extreme situations. His work is characterized by exploration of 'the darkness of man's heart', deep spiritual and ethical questions. "Twenty-five years ago I accepted the label 'pessimist' thoughtlessly without realising that it was going to be tied to my tail, as it were, in something the way that, to take an example from another art, Rachmaninoff's famous Prelude in C sharp minor was tied to him. No audience would allow him off the concert platform until he played it. Similarly critics have dug into my books until they could come up with something that looked hopeless. I can't think why. I don't feel hopeless myself." (from Nobel Lecture, 1983)
William Golding was born in the village of St. Columb Minor in Cornwall. His father was a schoolmaster who had radical convictions in politics and a strong faith in science. Golding started writing at the age of seven, but following the wishes of his parents, he studied natural sciences and English at Brasenose College, Oxford. His first book, a collection of poems, appeared a year before Golding received his B.A. After graduation Golding became a settlement house worker, and 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 in command of a rocket ship. His active service included involvement in the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck and participating in the Normandy invasion. After the war Golding returned to writing and teaching, with a dark view of humanity's progress. "They cried for their mothers much less often than might have been expected; they were very brown, and filthily dirty." (from Lord of the Flies)
In Salisbury Golding wrote four books, but did not get them published. His novel LORD OF THE FLIES, set in the near future during wartime, was turned down by twenty-one publishes, until it finally appeared in 1954. The book became an immediate success in Britain and a bestseller among American readers in the late 1950s.