His books have been translated into nearly 30 languages and several films have been made, including “Shout at the Devil” in 1976 with Lee Marvin and Roger Moore.
Internationally acclaimed author Wilbur Smith died on Saturday at his home in South Africa after a decades-long career in writing, his office said. He was 88 years old.
With 49 titles under his belt, Mr. Smith became a household name, his flamboyant adventure stories taking readers from tropical islands to the jungles of Africa and even ancient Egypt and World War II.
A statement issued by the Wilbur Smith Books website as well as by their publisher Bonnier Books UK said, “Global bestselling author Wilbur Smith died unexpectedly this afternoon after reading and writing with his wife Niso at their Cape Town home. has expired.” ,
“The undisputed and unparalleled master of adventure writing, Wilbur Smith’s novels have captivated readers for more than half a century, selling more than 140 million copies worldwide in more than thirty languages.”
The cause of death has not been disclosed in the statements.
His 1964 debut novel “When the Lion Feeds”, a story about growing up on a South African cattle farm, became an instant bestseller and led to 15 sequels tracing the fortunes of an ambitious family for more than 200 years. .
Born in Zambia in 1933 to a British family, he was also a big game hunter who grew up experiencing the jungle, hills and savannahs of Africa on his parents’ farm.
He also had a pilot’s license and was a scuba diver.
As a conservationist, he managed his own game reserve and owned a tropical island in the Seychelles.
He credits his mother with teaching him to love nature and to read, while his father – a strict disciplinarian – gave him a rifle at the age of eight, which he admitted was a lifelong love affair with firearms and hunting. .
When he was just one and a half years old, he was diagnosed with cerebral malaria – a disease so severe that he feared damage to his brain if he survived.
“It probably helped because I think you have to be a little crazy to try to earn a living from writing,” he later contemplated.
His publisher stated that his bestselling “Courtney Series” was the longest-running in publishing history, spanning generations and three centuries, “from the beginning of colonial Africa to the American Civil War and the era of apartheid in South Africa”.
But it was with Tata, the protagonist of his “Egyptian series”, that Wilbur “identified most strongly, and River God remains one of his favorite novels to this day”, it added.
‘Pleasures given to millions’
He also used his vast experiences outside Africa, in places like Switzerland and rural Russia, to help create his fictional world.
In his 2018 memoir “On Leopard Rock”, Mr. Smith recalled that “hard times, bad marriages … lit the midnight oil, but in the end, it added up to an unprecedentedly fulfilling and wonderful life.”
“I want to be remembered as someone who brought happiness to millions,” he wrote.
His office thanked “the millions of fans around the world who cherish his incredible writing and join us all in his amazing adventures”.
His books have been translated into nearly 30 languages and several films have been made, including “Shout at the Devil” in 1976 with Lee Marvin and Roger Moore.
According to Kate Parkin, managing director of Bonnier Books, Mr. Smith “left behind a treasure trove of novels,” including unpublished co-authored books.
His literary agent for the past decade, Kevin Conroy Scott, described him as “an icon, larger than life” and said that his “knowledge of Africa, and his imagination knew no bounds”.
He was married four times to his last wife, Mokhniso Rakhimova from Tajikistan, 39 years his junior.
,