Parent company | Worldwide Branding |
---|---|
Founded | 1899 |
Founder | Albert Nelson Marquis |
Country of origin | United States |
Headquarters location | New Providence, New Jersey |
Distribution | Worldwide |
Key people |
Fred Marks (CEO and Editor-in-Chief) |
Publication types | Reference Work, Press Releases |
Nonfiction topics | Biographies |
No. of employees | 5 |
Official website | www |
Marquis Who's Who /ˈmɑːrkwᵻs/ is the American publisher of a number of directories containing short biographies. The books are usually titled Who's Who in... followed by some subject, such as Who's Who in America, Who's Who of American Women, Who's Who in the World, Who's Who in Science and Engineering, Who's Who in American Politics, etc. Marquis Who's Who books are often found in the reference section of local libraries, at corporate libraries, and are also used for research by universities.
Who's Who in America, its publication, is a registered trademark of Marquis Who's Who Ventures, LLC, a subsidiary of vanity publisher Worldwide Branding (also known as Cambridge Who's Who). In 2005, while owned by News Communications, Inc., publishers of The Hill, The New York Times referred to the 60th edition of Who's Who in America as "a librarian's Vanity Fair."
Marquis states in the Preface that Who's Who in America "endeavors to profile the leaders of American society; those men and women who are influencing their nation's development".
Entries in Marquis Who's Who books list career and personal data for each biography, including birth date and place, names of parents and family members, education, writings and creative works, civic activities, awards, political affiliation, religion, and addresses. The content is also provided online to libraries and other paid subscribers.
Marquis Who's Who claims to require no publication or processing fees from the persons selected as biographees.
Founded in 1899 by Albert Nelson Marquis as an American counterpoint to the UK-oriented publication of the same name (published by A.C. Black since 1849 and, notably, including substantial biographies since 1897), the first edition of the publication contained concise biographies of more than 8,500 "distinguished Americans". Albert Marquis wrote that the book's objective was to "chronicle the lives of individuals whose achievements and contributions to society make them subjects of widespread reference interest and inquiry." Today, the company publishes over a dozen different series and offers an online database with information on 1.4 million individuals; Who's Who in America contains over 90,000 entries.