Author. He was born in Newquay, Cornwall, England and studied natural science and English at Oxford University. While at Oxford, he published a volume of poetry. It was however to take twenty years before he published his first novel. He spent several years working in a small London theatre. He married Ann Brookfield, an analytical chemist, in 1939 and became a teacher of English and philosophy in Salisbury. He joined the Royal Navy and served between 1940 and 1945. He saw much action during the war and commanded a rocket-launching ship during the invasion of Normandy. After World War II (WWII) ended, he returned to teaching in Salisbury. Soon after, he began writing. In the beginning he had very little success. He completed several novels, none of which found a publisher. Yet, he persisted. In 1954, afer the manuscript had been turned down by numerous publishers, Golding's first novel "Lord of the Flies" was finally published. The book was a sensation and immediately became a best-seller in Britain. The novel did not have the same impact in the United States at first. When it was reprinted in 1959 however, it became very successful and rivaled J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye" in popularity with young people. In 1961, after spending a year as writer-in-residence at Hollins University in Hollins, Virginia, he became a full-time writer. In the years after "Lord of the Flies" success, Golding published three more novels: "The Inheritors" (1955), "Pincher Martin" (1956) and "Free Fall" (1959). Although Golding never again achieved the worldwide success of his first novel, he continued to write a number of novels such as: "The Spire" (1964), "The Pyramid" (1967), "The Scorpion God" (1971) and "Darkness Visible" (1979). His 1980 novel "Rites of Passage" was awarded England's Booker Prize. In 1983, Golding was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature. He enjoyed good health into his old age until he died of a heart attack at the age of 81.