The Herr Doctor does not know about peoples.
Free Fall (1959), last line
The man who tells the tale if he has a tale worth telling will know exactly what he is about and this business of the artist as a sort of starry-eyed inspired creature, dancing along, with his feet two or three feet above the surface of the earth, not really knowing what sort of prints he's leaving behind him, is nothing like the truth.
Interview with Frank Kermode|Frank Kermode, BBC Third Programme (1959-08-28)
Basically I'm an optimist. Intellectually I can see man's balance is about fifty-fifty, and his chances of blowing himself up are about one to one. I can't see this any way but intellectually. I'm just emotionally unable to believe that he will do this. This means that I am by nature an optimist and by intellectual conviction a pessimist, I suppose.
Interview with James Keating, Purdue University, 1962-05-10, printed in Lord of the Flies: The Casebook Edition (1964)
The writer probably knows what he meant when he wrote a book, but he should immediately forget what he meant when he's written it.
Quoted in John Haffenden, ed., Novelists in Interview, (1985)
"Aren't there any grownups at all?""I don't think so."The fair boy said this solemnly; but then the delight of a realized ambition overcame him. In the middle of the scar he stood on his head and grinned at the reversed fat boy."No grownups!"
Ch. 1: The Sound of the Shell
"I was the only boy in our school what had asthma," said the fat boy with a touch of pride. "And I've been wearing specs since I was three."
Ch. 1: The Sound of the Shell
"Aren't you going to swim?"Piggy shook his head."I can't swim. I wasn't allowed. My asthma—""Sucks to your ass-mar!"
Ch. 1: The Sound of the Shell
"This is our island. It’s a good island. Until the grown-ups come to fetch us we’ll have fun."
Ch. 2: Fire on the Mountain
Sir William Gerald Golding (19 September 1911 – 19 June 1993) was a British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, best known for his novel
Lord of the FliesLord of the Flies is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding about a group of British boys stuck on a deserted island who try to govern themselves, with disastrous results...
. He was also awarded the Booker Prize for literature in 1980 for his novel Rites of Passage, the first book of the trilogy
To the Ends of the EarthTo the Ends of the Earth is a trilogy of novels by William Golding, consisting of Rites of Passage , Close Quarters , and Fire Down Below...
.
In 2008,
The TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
ranked Golding third on their list of "The 50 greatest
British writersBritish Literature refers to literature associated with the United Kingdom, Isle of Man and Channel Islands. By far the largest part of British literature is written in the English language, but there are bodies of written works in Latin, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Scots, Cornish, Manx, Jèrriais,...
since 1945".
Early life
William Golding was born in his grandmother's house, 47 Mountwise, Newquay, Cornwall and he spent many childhood holidays there. He grew up at his family home in Marlborough, Wiltshire, where his father (Alec Golding) was a science master at
Marlborough Grammar SchoolSt John's School and Community College is an age 11–18 mixed comprehensive school in the town of Marlborough, Wiltshire in England.-Admissions:...
(1905 to retirement). Alec Golding was a socialist with a strong commitment to scientific rationalism, and the young Golding and his elder brother Joseph attended the school where his father taught. His mother, Mildred, kept house at 29, The Green, Marlborough, and supported the moderate campaigners for female suffrage. In 1930 Golding went to
Oxford UniversityThe University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
as an undergraduate at
Brasenose CollegeBrasenose College, originally Brazen Nose College , is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. As of 2006, it has an estimated financial endowment of £98m...
, where he read Natural Sciences for two years before transferring to
English LiteratureEnglish literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
.
Golding took his B.A. (Hons) Second Class in the summer of 1934, and later that year his first book,
PoemsPoems was the first work by British novelist William Golding . Released in 1934, a full 20 years before Lord of the Flies , he later derided it, but critics in retrospect called it "not bad."...
, was published in London by
Macmillan & CoMacmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...
, through the help of his Oxford friend, the
anthroposophistAnthroposophy, a philosophy founded by Rudolf Steiner, postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world accessible to direct experience through inner development...
Adam Bittleston.
Marriage and family
Golding married Ann Brookfield, an analytic chemist, on 30 September 1939 and they had two children, Judy and David.
War service
William Golding joined the Royal Navy in 1940. During
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Golding fought in the
Royal NavyThe Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
and was briefly involved in the pursuit and sinking of Germany's mightiest battleship, the
BismarckBismarck was the first of two s built for the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. Named after Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, the primary force behind the German unification in 1871, the ship was laid down at the Blohm & Voss shipyard in Hamburg in July 1936 and launched nearly three years later...
. He also participated in the invasion of
NormandyNormandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
on
D-DayD-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
, commanding a landing ship that fired salvoes of rockets onto the beaches, and then in a naval action at
Walcherenthumb|right|250px|Campveer Tower in Veere, built in 1500Walcheren is a former island in the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands at the mouth of the Scheldt estuary. It lies between the Oosterschelde in the north and the Westerschelde in the south and is roughly the shape of a rhombus...
in which 23 out of 24 assault craft were sunk. At the war's end, he returned to teaching and writing.
Death
In 1985, Golding and his wife moved to
Tullimaar HouseTullimaar House is a mansion just east of Perranarworthal in west Cornwall, England, United Kingdom; it is not visible from the main A39 Falmouth to Truro road, and stands in private grounds...
at
PerranarworthalPerranarworthal is a civil parish and village in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The village is situated approximately four miles northwest of Falmouth and five miles southwest of Truro....
, near
TruroTruro is a city and civil parish in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. The city is the centre for administration, leisure and retail in Cornwall, with a population recorded in the 2001 census of 17,431. Truro urban statistical area, which includes parts of surrounding parishes, has a 2001 census...
, Cornwall, where he died of heart failure, eight years later, on 19 June 1993. He was buried in the village churchyard at
BowerchalkeBowerchalke or Bower Chalke is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about southwest of Salisbury. It is in the south of Wiltshire, about from the county boundary with Dorset and from that with Hampshire. It is in the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding...
, South Wiltshire (near the Hampshire and Dorset county boundaries). He left the draft of a novel,
The Double Tongue, set in
ancient DelphiDelphi is both an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis.In Greek mythology, Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, and a major site for the worship of the god...
, which was published posthumously. He is survived by his daughter, the author Judy Golding, and his son David, who still lives at Tullimaar House.
Writing success
In September 1953, Golding sent a manuscript to
Faber & FaberFaber and Faber Limited, often abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in the UK, notable in particular for publishing a great deal of poetry and for its former editor T. S. Eliot. Faber has a rich tradition of publishing a wide range of fiction, non fiction, drama, film and music...
of London. Initially rejected by a reader there, the book was championed by Charles Monteith, then a new editor at the firm. He asked for various cuts in the text and the novel was published in September 1954 as
Lord of the FliesLord of the Flies is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding about a group of British boys stuck on a deserted island who try to govern themselves, with disastrous results...
. It was shortly followed by other novels, including
The InheritorsThe Inheritors is the 1955 second novel by the British author William Golding, best known for Lord of the Flies. It was his personal favourite of all his novels and concerns the extinction of the last remaining tribe of Neanderthals at the hands of the more sophisticated Homo sapiens.-Plot...
,
Pincher MartinPincher Martin: The Two Deaths of Christopher Martin , is a survivalist novel by British writer William Golding, first published in 1956...
and
Free FallFree Fall is the fourth novel of English novelist William Golding, first published in 1959. Written in the first person, it is a self-examination by an English painter, Samuel Mountjoy, held in a German POW camp during World War Two.-Plot summary:...
.
Publishing success made it possible for Golding to resign his teaching post at
Bishop Wordsworth's SchoolBishop Wordsworth's School is a Church of England boys' day grammar school located in Salisbury, England. In 2010, there were 748 pupils aged between 11 and 18. The school is regularly amongst the top-performing schools in England, and in 2011 was the top school performer for the English...
in 1961, and he spent that academic year in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
as writer-in-residence at
Hollins CollegeHollins University is a four-year institution of higher education, a private university located on a campus on the border of Roanoke County, Virginia and Botetourt County, Virginia...
, near
Roanoke, VirginiaRoanoke is an independent city in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. state of Virginia and is the tenth-largest city in the Commonwealth. It is located in the Roanoke Valley of the Roanoke Region of Virginia. The population within the city limits was 97,032 as of 2010...
. Having moved in 1958 from
SalisburySalisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England and the only city in the county. It is the second largest settlement in the county...
to nearby
BowerchalkeBowerchalke or Bower Chalke is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, about southwest of Salisbury. It is in the south of Wiltshire, about from the county boundary with Dorset and from that with Hampshire. It is in the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding...
, he met his fellow villager and walking companion
James LovelockJames Lovelock, CH, CBE, FRS is an independent scientist, environmentalist and futurologist who lives in Devon, England. He is best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis, which postulates that the biosphere is a self-regulating entity with the capacity to keep our planet healthy by controlling...
. The two discussed Lovelock's
hypothesisThe Gaia hypothesis, also known as Gaia theory or Gaia principle, proposes that all organisms and their inorganic surroundings on Earth are closely integrated to form a single and self-regulating complex system, maintaining the conditions for life on the planet.The scientific investigation of the...
that the living matter of the planet Earth functions like a single organism, and Golding suggested naming this hypothesis after
GaiaGaia was the primordial Earth-goddess in ancient Greek religion. Gaia was the great mother of all: the heavenly gods and Titans were descended from her union with Uranus , the sea-gods from her union with Pontus , the Giants from her mating with Tartarus and mortal creatures were sprung or born...
, the goddess of the earth in Greek mythology.
In 1970, Golding was
a candidate for the Chancellorship of the University of Kent at CanterburyThe 1970 University of Kent at Canterbury election for the position of Chancellor was called following the death of the first Chancellor, Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent, on August 27, 1968...
, but lost to the politician and leader of the Liberal Party
Jo Grimond. Golding won the
James Tait Black Memorial PrizeFounded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...
in 1979, and the
Booker PrizeThe Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe. The winner of the Man Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and...
in 1980. In 1983 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, a choice which was, according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, "an unexpected and even contentious choice, with most English critics and academics favouring
Graham GreeneHenry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
or
Anthony BurgessJohn Burgess Wilson – who published under the pen name Anthony Burgess – was an English author, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. The dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange is Burgess's most famous novel, though he dismissed it as one of his lesser works...
". He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1988.
The ONDB asserts that "At the end of the twentieth century, Golding's reputation was at its highest in continental
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, particularly in
BelgiumBelgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
,
HollandThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, and
FranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
".
Fiction
Golding's often
allegoricalAllegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...
fiction makes broad use of allusions to classical literature, mythology, and
Christian symbolismChristian symbolism invests objects or actions with an inner meaning expressing Christian ideas. Christianity has borrowed from the common stock of significant symbols known to most periods and to all regions of the world. Religious symbolism is effective when it appeals to both the intellect and...
. No distinct thread unites his novels (unless it be a fundamental pessimism about humanity), and the subject matter and technique vary. However his novels are often set in closed communities such as islands, villages, monasteries, groups of hunter-gatherers, ships at sea or a pharaoh's court. His first novel,
Lord of the FliesLord of the Flies is a novel by Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding about a group of British boys stuck on a deserted island who try to govern themselves, with disastrous results...
(1954; film, 1963 and 1990; play, adapted by
Nigel WilliamsNigel Williams is an English novelist, screenwriter and playwright.-Biography:He was educated at Highgate School and Oriel College, Oxford, is married with three sons and lives in Putney, south-west London...
, 1995), dealt with an unsuccessful struggle against barbarism and war, thus showing the moral ambiguity and fragility of civilization. It has also been said that it is an allegory of World War II.
The InheritorsThe Inheritors is the 1955 second novel by the British author William Golding, best known for Lord of the Flies. It was his personal favourite of all his novels and concerns the extinction of the last remaining tribe of Neanderthals at the hands of the more sophisticated Homo sapiens.-Plot...
(1955) looked back into prehistory, advancing the thesis that humankind's evolutionary ancestors, "the new people" (generally identified with Homo sapiens sapiens), triumphed over a gentler race (generally identified with Neanderthals) as much by violence and deceit as by natural superiority.
The SpireThe Spire is a 1964 novel by the English author William Golding. "A dark and powerful portrait of one man's will", it deals with the construction of the 404-foot high spire of Salisbury Cathedral; the vision of the fictional Dean Jocelin...
1964 follows the building (and near collapse) of a huge spire onto a mediæval cathedral church (generally assumed to be
Salisbury CathedralSalisbury Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England, considered one of the leading examples of Early English architecture....
); the church and the spire itself act as a potent symbols both of the dean's highest spiritual aspirations and of his worldly vanities. His 1956 novel
Pincher MartinPincher Martin: The Two Deaths of Christopher Martin , is a survivalist novel by British writer William Golding, first published in 1956...
concerns the last moments of a sailor thrown into the north Atlantic after his ship is attacked. The structure is echoed by that of the later Booker Prize winner by
Yann MartelYann Martel is a Canadian author best known for the Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi.-Early life:Martel was born in Salamanca, Spain where his father was posted as a diplomat for the Canadian government. He was raised in Costa Rica, France, Mexico, and Canada...
,
Life of PiLife of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist, Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age...
. The 1967 novel
The PyramidThe Pyramid is a novel by the English author, William Golding....
comprises three separate stories linked by a common setting (a small English town in the 1920s) and narrator.
The Scorpion GodThe Scorpion God is a novella by William Golding, published in a collection of the same name, along with Clonk Clonk and Envoy Extraordinary ....
(1971) is a volume of three novellas set in a prehistoric African hunter-gatherer band ('Clonk, Clonk'), an ancient Egyptian court ('The Scorpion God') and the court of a Roman emperor ('Envoy Extraordinary'). The last of these is a reworking of his 1958 play The Brass Butterfly.
Golding's later novels include
Darkness VisibleDarkness Visible is a 1979 novel by British author William Golding. The book won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. The title comes from Paradise Lost, from the line, "No light, but rather darkness visible"....
(1979), The Paper Men (1984), and the comic-historical sea trilogy
To the Ends of the EarthTo the Ends of the Earth is a trilogy of novels by William Golding, consisting of Rites of Passage , Close Quarters , and Fire Down Below...
, comprising the Booker Prize-winning Rites of Passage (1980), Close Quarters (1987), and Fire Down Below (1989).
Novels
- Lord of the Flies (1954)
- The Inheritors
The Inheritors is the 1955 second novel by the British author William Golding, best known for Lord of the Flies. It was his personal favourite of all his novels and concerns the extinction of the last remaining tribe of Neanderthals at the hands of the more sophisticated Homo sapiens.-Plot...
(1955)
- Pincher Martin
Pincher Martin: The Two Deaths of Christopher Martin , is a survivalist novel by British writer William Golding, first published in 1956...
(1956)
- Free Fall
Free Fall is the fourth novel of English novelist William Golding, first published in 1959. Written in the first person, it is a self-examination by an English painter, Samuel Mountjoy, held in a German POW camp during World War Two.-Plot summary:...
(1959)
- The Spire
The Spire is a 1964 novel by the English author William Golding. "A dark and powerful portrait of one man's will", it deals with the construction of the 404-foot high spire of Salisbury Cathedral; the vision of the fictional Dean Jocelin...
(1964)
- The Pyramid
The Pyramid is a novel by the English author, William Golding....
(1967)
- The Scorpion God
The Scorpion God is a novella by William Golding, published in a collection of the same name, along with Clonk Clonk and Envoy Extraordinary ....
(1971)
- Darkness Visible
Darkness Visible is a 1979 novel by British author William Golding. The book won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. The title comes from Paradise Lost, from the line, "No light, but rather darkness visible"....
(1979)
- The Paper Men
The Paper Men is a 1984 novel by British writer William Golding.The protagonist in the novel is Wilfred Barclay, a curmudgeonly writer who has a drinking problem, a dead marriage, and the incurable itches of middle-aged lust...
(1984)
- To the Ends of the Earth
To the Ends of the Earth is a trilogy of novels by William Golding, consisting of Rites of Passage , Close Quarters , and Fire Down Below...
(trilogy)
- Rites of Passage (1980)
- Close Quarters
- Fire Down Below (1989)
- The Double Tongue (posthumous) (1995)
Nonfiction
- The Hot Gates
The Hot Gates is the title of a collection of essays by William Golding, author of Lord of the Flies. The collection is divided into four sections: 'People and Places', 'Books', 'Westward Look' and 'Caught in a Bush'. Published in 1965, it includes pieces that Golding had written over the...
(1965)
- A Moving Target (1982)
- An Egyptian Journal (1985)
Unpublished works
- Seahorse was written in 1948. It is a biographical account of sailing on the south coast of England whilst in training for D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
.
- Circle Under the Sea is an adventure novel about a writer who sails to discover archaeological treasures off the coast of the Scilly Isles.
- Short Measure is a novel set in a British boarding school.
Further reading
- L. L. Dickson, The Modern Allegories of William Golding (University of South Florida Press, 1990). ISBN 0-8130-0971-5
See also
- Novels by William Golding
- R. A. Gekoski and P.A.Grogan, William Golding: A Bibliography, London, André Deutsch, 1994. ISBN 978-0-233-98611-1
- "Boys Armed with Sticks: William Golding's Lord of the Flies." Chapter in B. Schoene-Harwood. Writing Men. Edinburgh University Press, 2000.
External links
- BBC television interview from 1959
- Golding's Life and work reviewed at the Educational Paperback Association
- Golding - Lord of the Flies in Georgian blog
- Biography of William Golding at the Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
website
- Interview by Mary Lynn Scott – Universal Pessimist, Cosmic Optimist
- William Golding Ltd Website of Golding family.
- Last Words An account of Golding's last evening by D. M. Thomas
Donald Michael Thomas, known as D. M. Thomas , is a Cornish novelist, poet, and translator.Thomas was born in Redruth, Cornwall, UK. He attended Trewirgie Primary School and Redruth Grammar School before graduating with First Class Honours in English from New College, Oxford in 1959...
– Guardian – Saturday 10 June 2006 (Review Section)
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography article by Kevin McCarron (online edn, May 2006), Golding, Sir William Gerald (1911–1993)
- The Cornish Banner, article by Donald Adamson
Donald Adamson is a historian, biographer, philosophical writer, textual scholar, literary critic, and translator of French literature...
, published 2010, William Golding Remembered.
- Official Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/William-Golding/138418262865472
- Nobel Prize Lecture: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1983/golding-lecture.html