Who's Who

For the album by John Scofield, see Who's Who?

Who's Who (or "Who is Who") is the title of a number of reference publications, generally containing concise biographical information on a particular group of people. The title is also used as an expression meaning a collection or group of noted persons; as in the sentence, "The actors in the film were a Who's Who of the great American comedians of the time".

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. The oldest and best known is the annual British publication Who's Who, a reference work on contemporary prominent people.

Many publications using the title are vanity publications, where the inclusion criterion is the biographee's willingness to buy the book, with the business model consisting of selling books directly to the biographees.

Notable examples

Similar publications

Some Who's Who books have a title in the language of the country concerned:

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Who's Who.
  1. "Le retour du «Who's who» suisse après vingt ans d'absence". Letemps.ch. Retrieved 2015-10-31.
  2. "Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur | Recherche | Biographische Datenbanken". Stiftung-aufarbeitung.de. Retrieved 2016-02-07.
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