
Sam Campbell
Public domain.
Campbell, Samuel Arthur (1895–1962)
By Sabrina Riley
Sabrina Riley was born in Auburn, New York and raised in Dowagiac, Michigan. She received a B.A. in history from Andrews University and an M.A. in information and libraries studies from the University of Michigan. Riley was a member of Andrews University’s library staff from 1998 to 2003, library director and college archivist at Union College from 2003 to 2016, and is presently a freelance researcher, author, and information professional.
First Published: November 29, 2023
Samuel Arthur Campbell1 was an American naturalist whose lectures, films, and children’s books were made popular among Adventists when the Missionary Volunteer Reading Course promoted them in the 1940s and 1950s.
Early Life
Campbell, known as Sam, was born on August 1, 1895, in Watseka, Illinois, to Arthur James and Katherine (Lyman) Campbell (1869-1935; 1871-1929).2 The family included another son, Donald, and a daughter, Lucile. The Lymans were early settlers of Illinois before the American Civil War. Around 1899, Arthur and Katherine Campbell moved to Chicago where Arthur worked for the Sloan Valve Company. However, the Campbells returned to the Lyman family farm in Watseka each summer for a vacation. In the 1910s they began to vacation along Four Mile Lake in northern Wisconsin. It was these experiences, along with his mother’s own love of nature, that instilled Sam Campbell’s passion for wildlife and nature conservation.
Following graduation, Campbell attended Northwestern University and the University of Chicago, but had difficulty settling on a career. He preferred the outdoors and enjoyed writing. He published a few articles in magazines, and yet, a clear career path was not evident. When his mother died in 1929, deep mourning led him to retreat to the family’s vacation property on Four Mile Lake. The solace he found in reflection while surrounded by peace-filled wilderness inspired him to share it with others. He soon began offering public lectures about the north woods, illustrated with films that friends helped him shoot.3 His first two books for adults, Sanctuary Letters4 and Conquest of Grief,5 were published in 1933. He later published Nature’s Messages: A Book of Wilderness Wisdom in 1952. However, it was his Forest Life Series of children’s books published between 1943 and 1962 that were most beloved by his readers.
Campbell and the Missionary Volunteer Department
The first known contact between Campbell and the Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Volunteer (MV) department occurred in 1939 when the Illinois Conference MV department invited Campbell to present at a youth rally at Broadview Academy (located in Chicago’s western suburbs) held November 11, 1939.6 Campbell remained an infrequent speaker at MV events in the Illinois Conference until his second book, Too Much Salt and Pepper,7 published in 1944, appeared on the 1946 MV Junior Reading Course (also known as the MV Book Club) book list.8 This event garnered Campbell the notice of Adventists from across the United States.
Campbell’s book proved popular among Adventist readers, leading to an unusual relationship between the MV literature committee and Campbell’s secular publisher, the Bobbs-Merrill Company. In 1950 the MV literature committee obtained an advanced reader copy of Campbell’s forthcoming Moose Country.9
The committee liked the story, but was concerned about the use of words such as “’Jeepers’ and sought counsel regarding such expressions as ‘swell,’ ‘heaven,’ [sic] ‘evolution’s answer,’ ‘I’ll bet,’ etc.” The committee’s final motion called for “the chairman [to] counsel with M. R. Thurber and E. B. Hare regarding any changes which he questions, and that they fill inlines [sic] which need to be deleted so that the paging will not be injured. Carried.” (MV Book Club Committee Minutes, January 25, 1950). In 1952 a similar discussion likely took place regarding The Seven Secrets of Somewhere Lake (included in the 1954 list), although it was only noted that the committee voted to accept the book subject to Bobbs-Merrill making the recommended changes (MV Book Club Committee Minutes, June 11, 1952).10
These recommended changes culminated in agreements negotiated with Bobbs-Merrill that allowed Pacific Press Publishing Association to print “Seventh-day Adventist” editions of the books simultaneously with the publisher’s original editions. Seven of Campbell’s twelve Forest Life books eventually appeared in the MV Junior Reading Course, including On Wings of Cheer (1949), Loony Coon (1955), Beloved Rascals (1958), and Calamity Jane (1963). Pacific Press later reprinted all twelve books. Wings of Cheer was also serialized in the Youth’s Instructor in 1956.11 Moose Country was serialized at least in part in 1959.12
The popularity of Campbell’s books led to a growing number of speaking engagements at Adventist schools and youth events, predominately in the Atlantic, Lake, North, Central, Pacific, and North Pacific union conferences. Adventist venues were integrated into his regular lecture schedule, sponsored by the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad for twenty-two years.
Campbell appealed to Adventists on several levels. He understood nature to be a revelation of God’s character and intervention in the world. Campbell believed that appreciation of nature could promote both an individual’s inner peace and harmony between people. “In his approach to conservation,” Campbell “had no time to get into the battles that [were] going on all over the nation, feeling that he could contribute far more by increasing appreciation and understanding among people by using the talents he had.”13
Later Life
Campbell married Virginia M. Adams (1905-1984) on June 10, 1941. They had no children. Known as Giny, she accompanied Campbell on the lecture circuit, assisted him with his film-making endeavors, and served as his business manager. Although their Sanctuary of the Wegimind island home was made famous in Campbell’s books, they maintained a winter home in Barrington, Illinois, from which they traveled for the winter slate of lectures.
It is estimated that Campbell “produced over 150,000 feet of film and conducted over 9,000 lectures during his 30 plus year career.” In addition to his lecture circuit, Campbell “was featured on radio and television shows; Midwestern listeners loved to tune in to his program ‘The Sanctuary Hour.’ …In the later years, he and Giny led tours all over the world under the auspices of their company, The Sam Campbell Tours and Nature Lectures.”14
In the spring of 1962, Campbell began to experience episodes of chest pain severe enough for him to cancel a scheduled appearance in mid-April. He died in Barrington, Illinois, on April 13, 1962,15 after suffering a massive heart attack.
Following Campbell’s death, Giny moved to Arizona. In 1970 she married Harold E. Kerry. She died in Maricopa, Arizona, in March 1984.
Legacy
After his death, Campbell’s books continued to be enjoyed by new generations of Adventist readers. Pacific Press kept the Forest Life series in print into the 1990s. The books were later reprinted by AB Publishing (Ithaca, Michigan) and remain popular in the Adventist used book sales market.
Campbell supported American environmentalist Sigurd F. Olson’s efforts to protect the Boundary Waters region of northern Minnesota from development and motorized watercraft, which resulted in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act (Public Law 95-495), passed in October of 1978.16 The United States Forest Service and the Three Lakes Historical Society jointly maintain the Sam Campbell Memorial Trail near Three Lakes, Wisconsin.
Sources
Campbell, Sam. Beloved Rascals. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1957.
Campbell, Sam. Calamity Jane. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1962.
Campbell, Sam. Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Mo - and Still-Mo. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1954.
Campbell, Sam. Fiddlesticks and Freckles. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1955.
Campbell, Sam. How's Inky? A Porcupine and His Pals Offer Some Highlights on Happiness. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1943.
Campbell, Sam. Loony Coon. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1954.
Campbell, Sam. Moose Country: A Boy Naturalist in an Ancient Forest. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill; Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1951.
Campbell, Sam. On Wings of Cheer. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill; Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1948.
Campbell, Sam. The Seven Secrets of Somewhere Lake. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1952.
Campbell, Sam. Sweet Sue's Adventures. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1959.
Campbell, Sam. A Tippy Canoe and Canada Too. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1946.
Campbell, Sam. Too Much Salt and Pepper. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill; Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1944.
Henson, Shandelle Marie. Sam Campbell: Philosopher of the Forest. Three Lakes, WI: Three Lakes Historical Society, 2001; TEACH Services, 2002.
Loveless, W. C. “For the Young People,” Lake Union Herald, October 24, 1939.
Missionary Volunteer Literature Committee (Box 10859). General Conference Archives. Silver Spring, Maryland, U.S.A.
“Outdoor Traveler Sam Campbell Dies.” Wisconsin State Journal, April 14, 1962. Accessed November 13, 2023. Newspapers.com.
Riley, Sabrina. “Naturalist Sam Campbell and the Missionary Volunteer Department.” OUTLook Magazine [online]. Accessed November 13, 2023. https://www.outlookmag.org/naturalist-sam-campbell-and-the-missionary-volunteer-department/.
“Three Lakes.” The Rhinelander Daily News, October 8, 1930.
Notes
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Unless otherwise noted, information in this article is extracted from Shandelle Marie Henson, Sam Campbell: Philosopher of the Forest (Three Lakes, WI: Three Lakes Historical Society, 2001; TEACH Services, 2002).↩
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“Arthur James Campbell obituary,” Chicago Tribune, July 17, 1935, 14, accessed November 13, 2023, Newspapers.com.↩
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“Three Lakes,” The Rhinelander Daily News, October 8, 1930, 7, accessed November 13, 2023, Newspapers.com.↩
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Sam Campbell, Sanctuary Letters; Being a Collection of Nature Writings (N. p., 1933).↩
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Sam Campbell, Nature's Messages: A Book of Wilderness Wisdom (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1952).↩
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W. C. Loveless, “For the Young People,” Lake Union Herald, October 24, 1939, 3.↩
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Sam Campbell, Too Much Salt and Pepper (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill; Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1944).↩
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“MV Reading Courses for 1946,” Youth’s Instructor, December 18, 1945, 3.↩
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Sam Campbell, Moose Country: A Boy Naturalist in an Ancient Forest (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill; Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press, 1951).↩
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Sabrina Riley, “Naturalist Sam Campbell and the Missionary Volunteer Department,” OUTLook Magazine [online]. accessed November 13, 2023, https://www.outlookmag.org/naturalist-sam-campbell-and-the-missionary-volunteer-department/.↩
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The first two chapters were printed in the Youth’s Instructor, September 4, 1956, 3-4, 20-22.↩
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The first two chapters were printed in the Youth’s Instructor, October 13, 1959, 9-11, 18-20.↩
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Sigurd, Olson, remarks at Sam Campbell’s memorial service, quoted from Henson, 109.↩
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Henson, 78-79.↩
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“Outdoor Traveler Sam Campbell Dies,” Wisconsin State Journal, April 14, 1962, 7, accessed November 13, 2023, Newspapers.com.↩
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Henson, 80.↩