William Golding


Born
in Newquay, Cornwall, England, The United Kingdom
September 19, 1911

Died
June 19, 1993

Website

Genre

Influences


Sir William Gerald Golding was a British novelist, playwright, and poet. Best known for his debut novel Lord of the Flies (1954), he published another twelve volumes of fiction in his lifetime. In 1980, he was awarded the Booker Prize for Rites of Passage, the first novel in what became his sea trilogy, To the Ends of the Earth. He was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Literature.
As a result of his contributions to literature, Golding was knighted in 1988. He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. In 2008, The Times ranked Golding third on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".
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Average rating: 3.69 · 2,992,545 ratings · 60,642 reviews · 140 distinct worksSimilar authors
Lord of the Flies

3.69 avg rating — 2,967,905 ratings — published 1954 — 429 editions
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The Inheritors

3.52 avg rating — 5,037 ratings — published 1955 — 138 editions
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Rites of Passage (To the En...

3.57 avg rating — 4,161 ratings — published 1980 — 86 editions
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The Spire

3.50 avg rating — 3,822 ratings — published 1964 — 116 editions
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Pincher Martin

3.56 avg rating — 2,408 ratings — published 1956 — 91 editions
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Darkness Visible

3.48 avg rating — 1,583 ratings — published 1979 — 66 editions
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Free Fall

3.66 avg rating — 1,358 ratings — published 1959 — 102 editions
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The Double Tongue

3.47 avg rating — 1,048 ratings — published 1995 — 47 editions
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The Pyramid

3.32 avg rating — 1,003 ratings — published 1967 — 57 editions
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The Paper Men

3.16 avg rating — 856 ratings — published 1984 — 54 editions
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More books by William Golding…
Rites of Passage Close Quarters Fire Down Below
(3 books)
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3.64 avg rating — 5,427 ratings

The Art of the Critic: Clas... The Art of the Critic: The ...
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4.88 avg rating — 16 ratings

Quotes by William Golding  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“Maybe there is a beast… maybe it's only us.”
William Golding, Lord of the Flies

“Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man's heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.”
William Golding, Lord of the Flies

“My yesterdays walk with me. They keep step, they are gray faces that peer over my shoulder.”
William Golding

Polls

If you could bring any deceased author back from the dead to write some more books, who would it be? (Fill in your answers below).

JRR Tolkein
Jrr Tolkien
 
  12 votes, 21.1%

All those and Frank Herbert, H. G. Wells, Maya Angelou, Louisa May Alcott, Ann Radcliffe, Daphne du Maurier, Anne McCaffney, Octavia E. Butler, Madeleine L’Engle, P. D. James, Shirley Jackson, Ann Radcliffe, and so many more. (write-in)
 
  8 votes, 14.0%

Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
 
  5 votes, 8.8%

Jane Austen
Jane Austen
 
  5 votes, 8.8%

William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
 
  3 votes, 5.3%

Charlotte Bronte
Charlotte Brontë
 
  2 votes, 3.5%

F Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald
 
  2 votes, 3.5%

George Orwell
George Orwell
 
  2 votes, 3.5%

Agatha Christie (write-in)
 
  2 votes, 3.5%

Raymond Chandler (write-in)
 
  2 votes, 3.5%

Maya Angelou (write-in)
 
  2 votes, 3.5%

Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson
 
  1 vote, 1.8%

Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens
 
  1 vote, 1.8%

Lewis Carroll
Lewis Carroll
 
  1 vote, 1.8%

Jules Verne
Jules Verne
 
  1 vote, 1.8%

Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
 
  1 vote, 1.8%

Frank Yerby (write-in)
 
  1 vote, 1.8%

Daphne Du Maurier (write-in)
 
  1 vote, 1.8%

Isaac Asimov
 
  1 vote, 1.8%

Edgar Allan Poe (write-in)
 
  1 vote, 1.8%

Alexandre Dumas
 
  1 vote, 1.8%

Ray Bradbury (write-in)
 
  1 vote, 1.8%

Jovan Autonomaševič (write-in)
 
  1 vote, 1.8%

Emily Bronte
Emily Brontë
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

Mark Twain
Mark Twain
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

William Golding
William Golding
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

Anthony Burgess
Anthony Burgess
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

Harper Lee
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

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