Golding, William 1911–

Golding is a leading British novelist, short story writer, playwright, poet, and essayist. He writes what Samuel Hynes terms "unusually tight, conceptualized, analogical expressions of moral ideas," novels which chart the struggle of good and evil in man. Essentially optimistic despite the grimness of much of his fiction, Golding writes out of a desire to assist people "to understand their own humanity." (See also CLC, Vols. 1,2,3,8, and Contemporary Authors, Vols. 5-8, rev. ed.)