Who's Who

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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. However, 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.

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Notable examples [edit]

Similar publications [edit]

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

  • Croatian: Tko je tko u Hrvatskoj - Who is Who in Croatia, single bilingual edition (1993)
  • Danish: Kraks Blå Bog (since 1910) annually
  • German: Wer ist's? (1905–1935) and Wer ist wer? (since 1951) almost annually
  • German: for East Germany: Wer war wer in der DDR? Online Version
  • Norwegian: Hvem er Hvem? (since 1912) 14 editions in the 20th century
  • Swedish: Vem är det? (since 1912) every second year
  • South Africa: Who's Who of Southern Africa (since 1910) annually


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References [edit]