William B. (William Budington) Duryee

Born in 1888, he was an American farmer, agricultural educator, and public official whose writing grew directly out of hands-on experience. Records from Project Gutenberg and library catalogs identify him as the author of A Living from the Land (1934) and Farming for Security (1943).

He was also active in New Jersey agriculture beyond his books. Biographical and memorial records describe him as a Rutgers graduate, a dairy farmer, and a longtime public servant who served as New Jersey's Secretary of Agriculture in the 1920s and 1930s.

That background helps explain the tone of his work: practical, grounded, and focused on helping ordinary people understand farming, food production, and rural living. Rather than writing from theory alone, he wrote as someone closely connected to the land and to the public life of agriculture.