
He earned a good commission for it and was motivated to write more. He sent out his first story 'On Flinder's Face' with the pen name Steven Lawrence and the story was accepted by Argosy magazine in 1963. Wilbur Smith started writing in his spare time, while he was working with the Inland Revenue Service. Smith tried his hands at various jobs like a gold mine, fishing boats, whaling ship, rubber factory and finally his own sheet metal establishment. Wilbur Smith attended Michaelhouse for high school, and Rhodes University to get his Bachelor's Degree in Commerce in 1954.

Smith's father was a metal worker who Smith described as a "tough man". Since childhood, Smith thought he never fitted in with the other students and constantly felt out of place.

Wilbur Smith was named after the famous aviator Wilbur Wright. He was born on January 9, 1933, in Zambia, a country betwixt South, Central and East Africa. Smith is a household name among contemporary novelists.

Wilbur Addison Smith was a British-African novelist who wrote more than 50 novels in his lifetime.
