Author Steven Pressfield was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad in September 1943. He graduated from Duke University in 1965 and joined the Marine Corps. Before becoming a full-time writer, he worked as a copy writer, taxi driver, bartender, tractor-trailer driver, fruit picker, and worked on oil rigs. He then moved to California and began writing screenplays. In 2000, his debut novel, The Legend of Bagger Vance, was made into a movie starring Matt Damon and Will Smith. He primarily writes military historical fiction set in classical antiquity. Most of his novels are told from the first-person perspective of the main character.