His next novel was Forever Island, the story of an old Seminole struggling against the development of the land where he has lived his whole life.

Smith's next book, Angel City, is the story of a poor family's struggles after being ensnared in a migrant camp.

In 1980, it was made into a CBS movie of the week, starring Ralph Waite and Jennifer Jason Leigh.

[3] Smith's best-known work is A Land Remembered,[4] a multi-generational novel of a family's struggles from pioneers to wealthy tycoons.

[4] Forever Island (1973) Angel City: A Novel (1978) Allapattah (1979) A Land Remembered (1984) The River is Home (1989) The Beginning: A Novel (1998) The Last Ride (2000) In Search of the Russian Bear: An American Writer's Odyssey in the Former Soviet Union (2001) The Seas That Mourn (2003) A White Deer and Other Stories (2007)