-
Date of birth. Eng. 10 , Michael Gliatti
William Golding was born in Cornwall England, in 1911. His mother, Mildred, was a strong supporter of the british suffragette movement. -
Education Eng. 10, Michael Gliatti
Golding began attending Brasenose College at Oxford in 1930 and spent two years studying science, in deference to his father's beliefs. In his third year, however, he switched to the literature program, following his true interests. -
Career and Later Years Eng. 10, Michael Gliatti
From 1935 to 1939, Golding worked as a writer, actor, and producer with a small theater in an unfashionable part of London, paying his bills with a job as a social worker. In 1939, Golding began teaching English and philosophy in Salisbury at Bishop Wordsworth's School. -
Novels he wrote. Eng. 10, Michael Gliatti
The five years Golding spent in the navy (from 1940 to 1945) made an enormous impact, exposing him to the incredible cruelty and barbarity of which humankind is capable. Writing about his wartime experiences later, he asserted that "man produces evil, as a bee produces honey." Long before, while in college, he had lost faith in the rationalism of his father with its attendant belief in the perfectibility of humankind. -
Major Themes Eng. 10, Michael Gliatti
When Lord of the Flies was first released in 1954, Golding described the novel's theme in a publicity questionnaire as "an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature." In his 1982 essay A Moving Target, he stated simply "The theme of Lord of the Flies is grief, sheer grief, grief, grief." -
Other Work and Honor Awards Eng. 10, Michael Gliatti
Golding's work is not limited to fiction: He published three collections of essays which are often comic and expand upon or illuminate his novels. The Hot Gates and Other Occasional Pieces was published in 1966; A Moving Target appeared in 1982; and An Egyptian Journal followed in 1985. -
Publication Eng. 10, Michael Gliatti
Golding's next publication was a collection entitled The Scorpion God: Three Short Novels (1971). Each story explores the negative repercussions of technological progress — an idea that was in sharp contrast to the technology worship of the space age. One of the novellas had been originally published in 1956; Golding then turned the story into a comedic play titled The Brass Butterfly, which was first performed in London in 1958. -
Other Work and Honor Award Eng. 10, Michael Gliatti
Following the publication of his best-known work, Lord of the Flies, Golding was granted membership in the Royal Society of Literature in 1955. Ten years later, he received the honorary designation Commander of the British Empire (CBE) and was knighted in 1988. His 1980 novel Rites of Passage won the Booker Prize, a prestigious British award. Golding's greatest honor was being awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize for Literature.
