Lyall Campbell, born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, holds BA and MA degrees in history from Dalhousie University, and a Bachelor of Library Science degree from the University of Toronto. His Sable Island research began more than thirty years ago with his Master's thesis, a history of Sable Island before Confederation, and he is the ahtor of a popular survey of Sable Island, Sable Island, Fatal and Fertile Crescent. Campbell lives in Edmonton, Alberta, where he works as a writer and a freelance editor.