Discover

'Marquis Who's Who' is a US publisher of a number of books containing short biographical sketches of celebrated persons. The books are usually titled ''Who's Who in...'' followed by some subject, such as ''Who's Who in America'', ''Who's Who in Science and Engineering'', ''Who's Who in the World'', and so on.
''The New York Times'' referred to the 60th edition of ''Who's Who in America'' as "a librarian's ''Vanity Fair''" and an "authoritative tool and valid portrait of [American] society". ^[1]
Marquis offers some features associated with the vanity press business models, such as selling merchandise to biographees, although this is not a criterion for being listed. ^[2]

Contents

History

Other ''Who's Who'' publications

Publications

General publications

Regional publications

Historical series

Criticism

See also

References

External links

History

Founded by Albert Nelson Marquis (pronounced as ), the first edition of the publication contained concise biographies of over 8,500 "distinguished Americans". Today, the company publishes over a dozen different series with information on more than a million individuals; the flagship book ''Who's Who in America'' contains over one hundred thousand entries. Their website states that Since 1899, ''Who's Who in America'' has chronicled the lives and careers of America's most noteworthy men and women. ^[3]

Other ''Who's Who'' publications

The title "Who's Who" is in the public domain, and thousands of "Who's Who" compilations of varying scope and quality have been published by various authors and publishers. International Who's Who (UK), Palgrave (UK) and WBIS Online, are also respected names. Some of the other publishers are vanity publications, where the inclusion criterion is the biographee's willingness to buy the book, and the business model consists in selling books directly to the biographees.

Publications

General publications

★ ''Who's Who in America''

★ ''Who's Who in the World''

★ ''Who's Who of Emerging Leaders''

★ ''Who's Who of American Women''

★ ''Marquis Who's Who Professional Publications''

★ ''Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare''

★ ''Who's Who in Science and Engineering''

★ ''Who's Who in Finance and Business''

★ ''Who's Who in American Law''

★ ''Who's Who in American Politics''

★ ''Who's Who in American Art''

★ ''Who's Who in American Education''

Regional publications

★ ''Who's Who in the South and Southwest''

★ ''Who's Who in the East''

★ ''Who's Who in the Midwest''

★ ''Who's Who in the West''

★ ''Who's Who in Asia''

Historical series

★ ''Who Was Who in America''

★ ''Who's Who in 20th Century America''

Criticism

Tucker Carlson, in an article entitled "The Hall of Lame" that appeared in ''Forbes'' Magazine in 1999, wrote that the selection process is neither rigorous nor meaningful, and self nominators and thousands of people not particularly notable are included, such as bowling coaches, teachers and landscape architects. Carlson also writes that Marquis makes money selling addresses to direct mail marketers. ^[4].

See also

★ Who's Who (UK)

References

1. Hamilton, William, L., "Who Are You? Why Are You Here?", ''The New York Times'', November 13, 2005 Available online
2. FAQ, Marquis Who's Who
3. About us marquiswhoswho.com
4. Carlson, Tucker. "The Hall of Lame", (1999) ''Forbes'' Magazine. Available online (Retrieved Jan 2006)

External links

★ Marquis Who's Who Online

★ Marquis selection criteria

★ Forbes 2006 lists refer to Marquis

★ Harvard's Biography Resource Center use Marquis Who's Who for reference