Biography
William Wister Haines (1908–1989) was an American author, screenwriter and playwright. He was born in Des Moines, Iowa, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1931 with a degree in engineering. During the Great Depression he worked as an electric lineman, an experience that informed his early novels.
Haines's first novel, Slim (1934), was adapted into a 1937 film for which he wrote the screenplay. He served as an intelligence officer in the US Army Air Forces during the Second World War. His most notable work, Command Decision, appeared as a novel, a Broadway play in 1948 and a film the same year.
His screenwriting credits include Black Legion (1937), The Racket (1951), One Minute to Zero (1952), The Wings of Eagles (1957) and Torpedo Run (1958). He also published the non-fiction book Ultra (1980) based on his wartime work.
