Dr. Wesley Britton was born in Munich, Germany in 1953. After his parents returned to the states when his father completed his military tour, the Brittons lived briefly in Louisiana, Texas, and Colorado before setting roots in central Pennsylvania in 1960. Wesley graduated from Cumberland Valley High School in 1971 and attended the University of Pennsylvania at California from 1974 to 1977. He majored in English and remembers many fond days studying history, anthropology, and archeology. He claims "looking for Indian sites was a great way to earn college credit during summer semesters."

While at California, Wesley was diagnosed with retineous pigmentosa, a genetic disease that slowly leads to complete blindness. After graduating with his BA in 1977, Wes joined his parents who'd moved to Dallas, Texas. There, Wes tried a number of vocations. "For a time, I had a small advertising agency which won awards and was a creative success, but a total business failure. I was a VISTA volunteer for a year, working on issues related to disabled Americans. I owned a second-hand record store and played drums in various Texas bands. Flops. For a long time, I lived on Social Security and a part-time job as a weekend broadcast engineer at a local radio reading service for the blind."

In 1983, "it became clear I needed to go back to school. I went to the University of North Texas from 1983 to 1990. I earned my M.A. and Ph.D. in American literature. I became something of an expert in Mark Twain studies. I enjoyed my years in Denton. By day, I was a scholar, taking classes, teaching classes, and writing my first articles. By night, I kept playing drums in a series of would-be bands that didn't create any memorable music, at least for the right reasons."

In 1990, Dr. Britton began his long quest to become a full-time professor in his field. "Before graduate school," Wes says, "my problems revolved around growing blindness. After graduation, my walls came from a profession that was becoming something very different than what I'd experienced up to that time. I joined the ranks of part-time teachers they call `adjuncts' or `contingent' faculty." During the '90s, Wes taught at a number of colleges in Texas and Oklahoma and moved to Sherman, Texas, to be able to have more of these teaching opportunities. "I built my income by writing a ton of encyclopedia articles and book reviews."

During this period, Wes also began writing poetry and was published in a number of both small and highly regarded publications. In 1997, he self-published an anthology of his work, Cracks of Consciousness. In 1998, Wes decided to move home to Harrisburg, PA, where "I was familiar with the area, I had many friends, and a base teaching part-time at Harrisburg Area Community College. I wanted to feel the seasons again. What I didn't expect was that, three weeks after I metaphorically got off the boat, I would meet my future wife."

In fact, Wes had known Betty Meyer back in childhood. "Betty remembers me from the 4th grade; we graduated in the same class at Cumberland Valley. By Christmas that year, Betty and I were engaged. We were married July 3 the following year."

Presently, Wes and Betty live in their Linglestown Road home with Kelley the cat, Corky the dog, and a large back yard. "It's more a park than yard, large enough for me to spend a lot of time gardening. It's very Buddhist, very Thoreau to spend time building composts, planting and weeding, all that. I understand it's not a good idea for a blind guy to mow lawns as we leave interesting patterns after us. But I like to try."

Wes still teaches English at Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC), where he served for two years as president of their Adjunct Faculty Organization. In January 2004, his first major book, Spy Television, was published by Praeger Publishers. "Spy Television resulted from my desire to move beyond cranking out all the short stuff I've been doing, to write something that would be fun to do, and something I felt there was a need for." After the success of Spy Television, Praeger published his Beyond Bond: Spies in Fiction and Film in 2005 and Onscreen and Undercover: The Ultimate Book of Movie Espionage in 2006. As Wesley's reputation in espionage has grown, he has been interviewed several times on WBZ radio, has appeared at the International Spy Museum -- well, you can see the highlights of Wesley's spy work in the many listings at this website.

From 2003 to 2004, Wes served as First Vice President for the Board of Directors for Tri-County Association for the Blind in Harrisburg. In 2005, he became Chair of the board and finished his service in early 2007. "I believe very much in the mission of Tri-County," Wes says, "and believe any service I can provide is a way of paying back to the community. I'd like to encourage everyone to visit the Tri-County website and contribute in any way to the services this invaluable agency provides the disabled folks of Central Pennsylvania."