This post really isn’t about the classic 1954 novel by William Golding. A dog-eared copy sits on my bookshelf, its slender (208-page) profile overshadowed by bulkier modern thrillers, and some day I will get around to writing a blog about it.

I’m writing because I happened to see in the “Los Angeles Times” a book review of a new Golding biography by John Carey. It turns out that “Lord of the Flies” was not always recognized as a milestone of literature; it very nearly never got published. To paraphrase the article by Nicholas Delbanco:

William Golding’s first three novels went unpublished – and “Lord of the Flies” was nearly a miss until the editor at Faber and Faber, Charles Monteith, rescued the manuscript of “Flies” from the refuse pile. Monteith reversed the decision of a professional reader (hired by Faber and Faber) who pronounced this verdict: “Time: the Future. Absurd & uninteresting fantasy about the explosion of an atom bomb on the Colonies. A group of children who land in jungle-country near New Guinea. Rubbish & dull. Pointless.”

It is an inspiration to every aspiring writer or musician or actor. Never give up – you never know when lightning may strike.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-william-golding-20100711,0,4155311.story