Dr. Gardner Ms. Baxter

British: Born in Cornwall, England on September 19, 1911 Attended Oxford University to study science Changed his major to literature after two years; loved Anglo- Saxon literature Joined the Royal Navy and fought in WWII He participated in D-Day After WWII, he began teaching writing Golding described his hobbies as thinking, classical Greek, sailing, and archeology, and his literary influences were Euripides and the anonymous Anglo-Saxon author of The Battle of Maldon His writing career spanned from 1934 to his death in 1993.

1952 He began work on a novel he called Strangers from Within In January he started sending the novel to publishers. Many rejected it, until in September Golding sent it to Faber and Faber, where it was eventually accepted In September, after changes to the text, it was published as Lord of the Flies.

The theme of Lord of the Flies is described by Golding as follows: The theme is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. The moral is that the shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectable(Epstein 204). Golding stated the theme is mans inhumanity to man.

Lord of the Flies is NOT a simple adventure story about boys on a deserted island. Golding has analyzed the human being in human society and put the characters in a test situation.

Awarded both the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature in 1983 and the coveted Booker Prize in 1980, William Golding's writing continues to touch every country in the world and is today read in more than 35 languages. He was knighted by the Queen in 1988, and his you-must-have-read-this classic novel Lord of the Flies is a global phenomenon.

Golding had been disappointed before. However, this time his experience was different. His journal records: At five past one the news was on radio and television - I've won the Nobel Prize. After that the phone's been on all day. I went riding, having left Ann in charge of the phone but when I got back to the stables the television people were there. Then more television and photographers and journalists turned up. It's about ten o'clock and the last lot of Swedish journalists have just gone.

Nobel Prize motivation: "for his novels which, with the perspicuity of realistic narrative art and the diversity and universality of myth, illuminate the human condition in the world of today. The Nobel Prize Medal for Literature medal of the Swedish Academy represents a young man sitting under a laurel tree who, enchanted, listens to and writes down the song of the Muse.

When Golding received his medal from the King of Sweden, he was astonished to hear the young man say: It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Golding. I had to do Lord of the Flies at school.

1955 Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature 1966 Awarded the CBE (Commander of the British Empire) 1970 Honorary doctorate University of Sussex 1974 Honorary doctorate University of Kent 1979 Darkness Visible wins the James Tait Black Memorial Prize 1980 Rites of Passage wins the Booker McConnell Prize 1981 Honorary doctorate University of Warwick 1983 The Nobel Prize for Literature. Honorary doctorates University of Oxford and The Sorbonne (University of Paris) 1984 Companion of Literature Honorary doctorate University of Bristol 1988 Knighted by The Queen 1992 Honorary doctorate University of Oviedo (Spain)

The Double Tongue (1995) To the Ends of the Earth (1991) Fire Down Below (1989) Close Quarters (1987) An Egyptian Journal (1985) The Paper Men (1984) A Moving Target (1982) Rites of Passage (1980) Darkness Visible (1979) The Scorpion God (1971) The Pyramid (1967) The Hot Gates (1965) The Spire (1964) Free Fall (1959) Pincher Martin (1956) The Inheritors (1955) Lord of the Flies (1954) Poems (1934)

Epstein, E.L. Notes on Lord of the Flies. New York: Perigree, William Golding. 3Sixty. United Kingdom