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Biography Bares Lord of the Flies Author's Demons

Biographer sheds light on unseen memoirs

By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff

Posted Aug 16, 2009 11:42 AM CDT
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(Newser) – In an unpublished autobiography, the author of Lord of the Flies described his attempted rape of a 15-year-old when he was about 18, the Times of London reports. While walking with the girl, he “felt sure she wanted heavy sex, as this was visibly written on her pert, ripe and desirable mouth,” William Golding writes in the memoir. They wrestled “like enemies”; he “tried unhandily to rape her.”

Golding “was aware of and repelled by the cruelty in himself,” writes biographer John Carey, who was afforded access to Golding’s unseen archives, including three unpublished novels, a pair of memoirs, and journals. The Nobel Prize-winning novelist also describes creating a Lord of the Flies-like scenario with boys he taught: He would “stir up antagonism” and watch their behavior.

Geneticist Barbara McClintock, winner of the 1983 Nobel prize for physiology or medicine, and English novelist William Golding, winner of the 1983 Nobel prize for literature, at Stockholm.
Geneticist Barbara McClintock, winner of the 1983 Nobel prize for physiology or medicine, and English novelist William Golding, winner of the 1983 Nobel prize for literature, at Stockholm.   (Getty Images)
William Golding describes trying to rape a 15-year-old in an autobiography.
William Golding describes trying to rape a 15-year-old in an autobiography.   (©adactio)
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(Golding) was aware of and repelled by the cruelty in himself and was given to saying that, had he been born in Hitler’s Germany, he would have been a Nazi. Dora seems to have played her part in this self-knowledge - Biographer John Carey

(Golding) saw the seeds of all evil in his own heart and found monstrous things, or things he accounted monstrous in his imagination. - Golding biographer John Carey

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 14 comments
kokuaguy
Aug 16, 2009 11:39 AM CDT
You're out voted. Don's go away mad. Go away in a Huff (post that is.) ; ^)
cochiserocks
Aug 16, 2009 11:31 AM CDT
Edgar Allen Poe = Inventor of the detective story genre (without which there'd be no Law and Order, CSI or even Sherlock Holmes). Inventor of science fiction. Generally accepted as one of the better American writers - married his 13 year old cousin and died of various sexual diseases and alcohol abuse. It's only in since the cult of celebrity made the creators more important than what they create that 1. The quality of work has on average dropped and 2. Anyone cares what these people do. Unfortunately, you don't get to write accurately about the dark side of human nature without knowing something of it yourself. I like to think Golding, like Poe, was trying to let us know we're all just one step away from some pretty dark stuff, and that the society we hold so dear is in fact only as strong as we choose to believe it to be. Lessons somedays we still don't seem to be grasping
Mad
Aug 16, 2009 11:03 AM CDT
Okay Neurotoxin, how, exactly is 'a deep and candid observation of the darkness inherent in human nature' equal to sarcasm? My point stands. Fool

 
rape • memoir • novelist • autobiography • sexual assault • William Golding

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