Who's Who (2011 edition: ISBN 978-1-4081-2856-5) is an annual British publication of biographies which vary in length (typically a single paragraph or block) of about 30,000 living notable Britons.
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Who's Who has been published since 1849 by A & C Black.[1]
Originally, it merely provided lists of the names of notable people, for example all Members of Parliament and all bishops. Beginning with the 1897 edition, it listed people alphabetically and provided fuller biographical details.
A full online edition of the work was launched in 2005. However, it continues to be published annually in hard copy.
A history of Who's Who was published to coincide with the 150th edition in 1998.
Subjects include peers, MPs, judges, very senior civil servants, and distinguished writers, actors, lawyers, scientists, researchers, and artists. Some (such as those holding a Professorial Chair at Oxford or Cambridge) are included automatically by virtue of their office; those in less hierarchical occupations are included at the discretion of the editors.
Inclusion in Who's Who, unlike many other publications, has never involved any payment by the subject, or even any obligation to buy a copy. Inclusion has always been by prominence in public life or professional achievement. Inclusion has therefore come to carry a considerable level of prestige. The Wall Street Journal has said that an entry in Who's Who "really puts the stamp on eminence on a modern British life", and the Daily Mail has described it as "Britain's most famous reference book".
Once someone is included in Who's Who he or she remains in it for life, so for example MPs are not removed when they leave Parliament. The 7th Earl of Lucan is still listed in the book, even though he has been missing since 1974 and was declared legally dead in 1999.[2]
Who's Who has been criticised for its conservatism. For example, all members of the English, Scottish, British and United Kingdom Peerage and Baronetage are included, however minor their achievements, but many better-known people are not. Since subjects remain in the volume until death, the editors tend to prefer establishment figures to those (such as pop stars and sportsmen) who enjoy greater celebrity for a time, but may then slip out of public view entirely. However, the editors now include more such people than before but the numbers are a small proportion of the total. Jeremy Paxman has pointed out that the publication is dominated by people who are active in British public life, including the members of the Scottish Parliament, Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies, as well as Members of the House of Commons, the Chief Executives of all UK cities and counties, and foreign Ambassadors accredited to London.[3] He also points out that there is a high proportion of Oxford and Cambridge (Britain's most prestigious universities) graduates among the new entrants.[3]
The publication is not a reliable source, since the entries are compiled from questionnaires returned to the publisher by the featured subjects. Some checks are made by the editors but subjects may say or omit anything they wish. For example, the playwright John Osborne did not acknowledge an estranged daughter in his entry; Carole Jordan does not mention any marriage in her article, although her ex-husband, Richard Peckover, did in his. Paxman has also calculated that only 8% of new entrants in 2008 made any reference to marital breakdown, which is far below the national average.[3]
On the other hand, by asking the people themselves to submit a short biography sometimes leads to them including titbits that would not otherwise be known, and allows the subject to show something of his or her character, rather than being a curriculum vitae, especially in the descriptions of "recreations". From conventional references to fishing, reading or opera (which still feature prominently), listed recreations now include "Maintaining rusty old cars", "Walking my iPod", "Anglophobia", "Being first in Who's who" and "Contemplating revenge".
Sometimes, there is an excess of detail: the prolific romantic novelist Dame Barbara Cartland listed each of her publications, many hundreds of books, together with a list of her other achievements; the result was one of the longest entries in the book's history.
When someone dies, their biography is transferred to the volumes of Who Was Who, where they are usually printed as they appeared in the last Who's Who, appended with their date of death.
The first volume of Who Was Who covered deaths between 1897 and 1915, but more recently they have appeared at ten-year intervals, and now appear every five years.[4]
The name has been widely copied, and now there are many publications with "Who's Who" in the title, though they are not from the same publisher. Some of these are considered to be merely Who's Who scams.[5]
The name is also often used metaphorically, as in this example from an AP wire article about Los Angeles cemeteries:
Los Angeles, Spanish for "The City of Angels," has one of the world's greatest collections of cemeteries and memorial parks in the world. A who's who of what was.[6]