Sam and Beryl Epstein
Sam Epstein and Beryl Williams Epstein were a husband-and-wife team who jointly wrote over 120 children's books. They used the pseudonym Bruce Campbell for the Ken Holt series of books which they wrote between 1949 and 1963.
Beryl Williams Epstein was born in Ohio, United States of America in 1910. She worked as a reporter and editor before she began collaborating with her fiance Samuel Epstein writing children's books. Their first book published was Tin Lizzie in 1937, a book about a boy who discovers how an automobile engine works. The couple married in 1938 and continued to work on projects writing under their names and under pseudonyms such as Bruce Campbell. After World War 2, the couple quit their jobs to write full time.
Depending on the type of story the husband and wife team were writing, they would divide the work with each writing certain sections of the book. At other times, the couple would come up with a flexible outline and one would start the story from the beginning and the other would begin in the middle. They would later work out any differences and overcome any problems in the flow of the story. The couple maintained their child-like interest in new things, and enjoyed researching for their books.
Even though they wrote books separately, Sam and Beryl enjoyed writing together much more. The couple is most noted for their ability to write as a team in many genres, including mystery and adventure stories, realistic fiction, historical fiction, informational books, and biographies. When asked if they would write children's books if they had to do it all over again, they replied "Oh, yes. We enjoy what we do. We've been fantastically lucky."