Article Essay on Publication of Lord of the Flies Manuscript

Lord Of The Flies manuscript to go on display
By Fiona Bailey
Arts reporter, BBC News
In 1983 William Golding was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature
Members of the public will be able to see the original Lord Of The Flies manuscript for the first time.
The classic novel, by Nobel Prize-winning author William Golding, is being displayed at the Bodleian Library in Oxford to commemorate 100 years since the writer's birth.
The book, about a group of British boys trapped on a deserted island, was rejected by 10 publishers before Faber and Faber editor Charles Monteith read it.
"He [Charles] said right from the beginning the story really grabbed his attention," says Judy Carver, Golding's daughter.
She explains her father wrote the tale in 1952 and a year later began to send it off to publishers.
"We've got a record, in his own handwriting, of him sending it off to various publishers who all rejected it."
"Eventually, eight months later it went to Faber. Initially the first person who read it had recommended that it should not be taken on, but very luckily for us, a new-ish editor called Charles Monteith happened to pick it up and was gripped by it," she explains.
It was Ms Carver's idea to exhibit the manuscript, along with various other articles from the family archive.
'Complicated process'
"From an emotional point of view the manuscript is extremely valuable," she says.
He was very tremendous to live with and he was a wonderful man and a great storyteller”
Judy Carver
"It's very interesting in terms of my father's developments as a writer, because you can see Lord of the Flies as it first sprang from his mind.
"You can compare the manuscript with the printed version and I'm glad to say both are almost exactly the same. He did make some additions, but I don't think that the publishers made any."
Some passages were pruned, but the remaining manuscript remained Golding's original work.
Initially the book was not well received, but by the early...