William Deming Hornaday was born near Plainfield, Indiana, February 4, 1868. He commenced his career in journalism at age 17 and worked for newspapers in Indianapolis, Indiana; Columbus, Ohio; Denver, Colorado; and Memphis, Tennessee. To supplement his salary, Hornaday worked as a special correspondent for a network of newspapers across the country. In 1898, he moved to San Antonio, Texas to work for the San Antonio Times and later the San Antonio Express. During this period, Hornaday gained national renown for an investigative report on poor rations provided to U.S. soldiers.

From San Antonio, Hornaday went to Mexico where he served as publicity director for the Mexican National Railway. During this period he interviewed several Mexican presidents and revolutionaries, including Porfirio Díaz, Victoriano Huerta, Álvaro Obregón, Venustiano Carranza, Francisco Madero, Doroteo Arango (Francisco Pancho Villa), and Emiliano Zapata.

In 1913 Hornaday embarked on a world cruise as a special correspondent for a newspaper syndicate. During the next several years, he made several trips to Europe, the Far East, and the Pacific islands. Hornaday came to Austin in 1917 as Director of Publicity for the University of Texas at Austin, a position he held until his death in 1942. In 1921, he established a student-owned and operated clipping service, which extracted narrative accounts and letters from World War I Texas servicemen from local newspapers. Hornaday prepared typescripts of these clippings, which forms the substance of this collection.