Marquis Who's Who
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Marquis Who's Who is a U.S. publication listing biographical information.
Founded in 1899 by Albert Nelson Marquis (pronounced "Marqwis"), the first edition of the publication contained concise biographies of over 8500 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.
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. Some of these are vanity publications, where the inclusion criteria is the biographee's willingness to buy the book, and the business model consists in selling books directly to the biographees.
Marquis does offer some vanity features and merchandise to biographees. Tucker Carlson in an article entitle Hall of Lame that appeared in Forbes Magazine, writes 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. Carlson, Tucker. The Hall of Lame, (1999) Forbes Magazine. [Available online] (Retrieved Jan 2006).
According to its publishers, the Marquis publications are intended and sold primarily as works of reference, and they insist that the sole selection criteria is "reference value". As proof of this reference value, they assert the company's success is demonstrated in celebrities and otherwise notable individuals contributing and updating their biographical data.
List of publications
- Who's Who in America
- Who's Who in the World
- 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 Was Who in America
- Who's Who in 20th Century America
See also
References
External links
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