Williams Haynes

Born in Detroit on July 29, 1886, he began his career in journalism, working for the New York Sun and editing trade publications before studying economics, biology, and chemistry at Johns Hopkins University. Although he did not complete a degree, those interests came together in the writing career that followed.

He became best known as an editor, publisher, and historian of chemistry. Over several decades he wrote extensively on chemical industries and materials, and he founded the long-running reference series Chemical Who's Who. His major works include the multivolume American Chemical Industry, along with books such as Cellulose: The Chemical That Grows.

Haynes spent much of his life documenting the people and companies behind industrial chemistry, making a complicated field easier to understand through history and biography. He died on January 16, 1970, leaving a body of work still valued by readers interested in the history of science, technology, and industry.