South African writer Wilbur Smith, author of many adventure novels translated around the world, died in Cape Town on Saturday at the age of 88, his publisher announced.
"
World bestselling author Wilbur Smith died unexpectedly this afternoon at his Cape Town home, after a morning of reading and writing, with his wife Niso by his side,
" a statement
read
on the Wilbur Smith Books website.
Wilbur Smith was the author of 49 novels translated into some 30 languages, which have sold a total of 140 million copies, according to the publisher.
Born January 9, 1933 in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, to British parents, Wilbur Smith rose to fame with his first novel, "
When the lion is hungry
" ( "
When the Lion Feeds
"), published in 1964.
An incredible saga of 13 novels
Its greatest success was the monumental "
Saga of the Courtneys
", a series of 13 novels recounting the destiny of a family spanning more than three centuries, from the start of the colonization of Africa by Europeans until the apartheid in South Africa.
Wilbur Smith "
transported his readers to gold mines in South Africa, to pirates in the Indian Ocean, to buried treasures in tropical islands, to conflicts in Arabia and Khartoum, ancient Egypt, in WWII Germany, Paris, India, the Americas and Antarctica.
He introduced them to ruthless diamond and slave traders, and big game hunters in the jungles and the bush,
”the editor wrote in the statement.
The editor thanked the "
millions of Smith fans around the world who cherished his incredible writing.
"
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