Roger B. (Roger Bradbury) Whitman

Roger B. Whitman, born Roger Bradbury Whitman, was an American author born in 1875 and deceased in 1942. Library and public-domain catalog records consistently identify him with that full name and date range, and they show that he wrote straightforward instructional books about engines and vehicles rather than fiction.

His known works include Motor-car Principles: The Gasoline Automobile, Motor-cycle Principles and the Light Car, Tractor Principles, and Gas-Engine Principles. Across these books, he focused on explaining the parts, operation, care, maintenance, and repair of gasoline-powered machines in plain, usable language.

Whitman’s work belongs to the formative years of the automobile age, when many readers were learning the basics of new machinery for the first time. His books still stand out as practical snapshots of early 20th-century mechanical knowledge and the everyday culture of motoring.