Lines, bars and circles : how William Playfair invented graphs
(Book)

"Born in Scotland more than 250 years ago, William Playfair was a dreamer who saw the world differently from other people. Unfortunately, this difference sometimes got in the way of his success. Early on, as he attempted to apply his unique perspective to a series of career opportunities in order to gain riches! fame! glory! he instead suffered one failure after another. Then, while writing a book about economics, Will's innovative vision inspired an idea that would set him apart: he created the first modern line graph. Next came a bar graph and later a pie chart. These infographic inventions provided a way for numbers to be seen as pictures, which made them easier to understand and to remember --- and thus changed the way the world would interact with data forever"--,Amazon.com.