Career
Born Sanford Brunson Campbell in Oberlin, Kansas, he ran away to Oklahoma City when he was fifteen and met Scott Joplin. Foreign the next decade, he made his living as a traveling pianist in the Midwestern and Southern United States. Toward the end of his life, he wrote about ragtime and made recordings.
He died in Venice, California.
He is buried at Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery. Brun Campbell is the subject of three novels by Larry Karp: The Ragtime Kid, The King of Ragtime, and The Ragtime Fool.