More or less born and raised in Salem, NH, Bernie W. Campbell was enthralled by history from a young age. He spent hours pouring over his grandfather’s collection of books from the Second World War, and his father’s Time-Life series on the U.S. Civil War. Throughout grade school, he struggled with writing, though, due to poor handwriting. Until the magic day in fourth grade when his parents brought home a Compusa 486 DX computer, complete with Word Perfect 5.1. Freed from the drudgery of having to make his handwriting legible to anyone other than himself (final drafts were now always typed and printed), his creative side emerged with a vengeance.

His love of history drew him to Washington and Lee University, in Lexington, VA, after graduating from Salem High School. There, after briefly flirting with a career in professional politics, he settled on a teaching career. This was no great surprise to most, for as a child, he had devoured R.F. Delderfield’s story of an English school master To Serve Them All My Days in a marathon sitting that left him in tears.

Returning to New Hampshire in 2005 after his sojourn in Virginia, he married his high school sweetheart, Sara, who was then studying for her Ph.d in chemistry at Dartmouth College. He taught for seven years at Laconia High School, before returning to his alma mater, Salem High, in 2015. He has returned to the family homestead in Salem, NH, with his wife, Sara, and their children, Bernie Robert and Ruth Alicia Lynn.