Dictionary.com defines a byline as "a printed line of text accompanying a news story, article, or the like, giving the author's name".
A typical biographical byline on a piece of creative nonfiction might read: John Smith is working on a book, My Time in Ibiza, based on this article.
[2] The word byline itself first appeared in print in 1926, in a scene set in a newspaper office in The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway.
In 1863, Union General Joseph Hooker required battlefield reporters to sign their articles so that he would know which journalist to blame for any errors or security violations.
[2] Since the 1970s, most modern newspapers and magazines have attributed almost all but their shortest articles and their own editorial pieces to individual reporters or to wire services.