To publish an acclaimed first novel must be the
dream of every author. For that first novel to be hailed
as a classic within the author’s lifetime is beyond a
dream. Yet for some writers who have experienced
this, early success came at a heavy price.
One of the most outstanding examples is William
Golding, author of Lord of the Flies. It was his first
book, published in 1954, when Golding was past 40.
He had been struggling for years as a teacher in a
small provincial school. When he sent out the
manuscript of his book, it was rejected by one
publisher after another. That was hardly surprising,
considering that he sent it out with a terse, barelylegible, hand-scrawled note: “I hope you will feel able
to publish it...” Finally it landed on the desk of the
reader at Faber and Faber. She promptly marked it
as a reject:
“Absurd and uninteresting fantasy... Rubbish and
dull. Pointless.”
Fortunately, one of the editors later picked it up
from the reject pile and had another look. He felt that
First edition (1954)
only a few critical changes were needed, before the
book went to print.
course of his long career, none of which achieved the
Lord of the Flies was soon recognised as a
same kind of success or recognition. He felt that the
landmark study in the dark aspects of human nature.
early success of Lord of the Flies had overshadowed,
It was lauded as one of the great books of the century,
unfairly, his later works – which he believed to be
and would earn Golding the Nobel Prize for
much more important. He would come to say that the
Literature. Yet in later years, he came to look back on
classic status of the book was a “joke.” When he
his first book with feelings of deep resentment. He
reread it late in his life, he said, “I found it boring and
wrote several more novels and other works in the
crude. The language is O level stuff.”