William G. Golding

Sir William Gerald Golding (1911-1993) is a English novelist and poet and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1983).

Born on September 19, 1911 in Newquay, Cornwall he was educated at Oxford University (Brasenose College).

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.

He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1988.

William Golding died in Perranarworthal on June 19, 1993 and was interred in the Churchyard cemetery in Bowerchalke, Wiltshire, England.

In 2001, his novel, Lord of the Flies, was listed as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century as selected by the editorial board of the American Modern Library.

His major published works are:

• Poems (1934)
• Lord of the Flies (1954)
• The Inheritors (1955)
• Pincher Martin (1956)
• Free Fall (1959)
• The Spire (1964)
• The Hot Gates (1965)
• ''The Scorpion God (1971)
• Darkness Visible (1979)
• A Moving Target (1982)
• To The Ends of the Earth trilogy - Rites of Passage (1980), Close Quarters (1987), and Fire Down Below (1989)