Where should the line be drawn separating individuals meriting a full-length biography from the plain folks who are inevitably relegated to historical oblivion? At first glance, one might conclude that Germaine M. Reed's new book is one of those works that crossed the line when it should not have, for chemist Charles Holmes Herty (1867-1931) discovered no new scientific laws or phenomena and added precious little to the body of pure chemical knowledge.

Rather, Herty by his own choice pursued for the most part a public career that took him well beyond his southern rural origins to New York City and successive positions of leadership within the American Chemical Society, the Chemical Foundation, trade associations, and the business community. Ironically, perhaps, this highly visible career path undoubtedly rendered him largely invisible to several generations of historians of chemistry.