8vo. Original red cloth (spine slightly leaning, toning); dust jacket (dampstaining to rear near flap, light sunning to spine, few chips to spine ends). Provenance: Godfrey Thurston Hopkins (1913-2014), British photojournalist (ownership signature on front free endpaper).

FIRST EDITION. Lord of the Flies is the debut novel of William Golding, who was inspired to write by the 1857 children's novel The Coral Island, which, while similar in plot, he felt was unrealistic in its portrayal of how children would behave in such a situation. Following completion, it was rejected by numerous publishers before Faber & Faber agreed to publish it in a first edition run of 3,000 copies. The book has since become one of the most popular and most challenged books of the 20th and 21st centuries. Gekoski & Grogan A2(a).