author
1872–1944
A Washington journalist and popular explainer, this early 20th-century writer turned public affairs into clear, accessible reading for everyday Americans. He is best known for books such as The American Government and for the question-and-answer newspaper work that carried his name.
Born in 1872 and active in Washington journalism, Frederic Jennings Haskin built a reputation for making government and public issues easier to understand. His writing was aimed at general readers, with a practical, explanatory style rather than a scholarly one.
He is associated most closely with The American Government, a book published in the early 1920s, and with newspaper information work often referred to as the Haskin service. That combination of reporting, reference-style answers, and civic explanation helped make him a recognizable name in American print culture of his time.
Haskin died in 1944. Surviving catalog and library records confirm both his full name and life dates, and they show a body of work centered on public information, journalism, and government.