So who is 'Someone' these days?

[salymap]

Hard print copies of reference books are essential to me. I very much miss the books available at the editorial office I worked in. Groves and everything else were dumped I believe. As I was the last in the department toleave I wish I'd just taken them, although I would have needed a large van.

At home,I treasure my 1934 edition of Routledge's Universal Encyclopaedia, given to me by family in 1940.
Fascinating stuff and a lotof interest still.

[Sydney Grew]

Hard print copies of reference books are essential to me. . . .

I love all the old books available here:

http://archive.org/details/texts

I have down-loaded literally thousands, in djvu format, and keep them on virtual shelves on a hard disk. No problem with space; no problem with dust; no problem with heaviness.

[gingerjon]

I've just had an email from OUP revealing who has been added this year to the updated Dictionary of National Biography (people who died in the past year are now eligible): it includes JG Ballard (of course), Harry Patch (interesting) and Jade Goody.

What struck me was how the choices themselves actually cast a light on changes in our basic attitudes, how the characteristics and priorities of our own times are reflected in those choices.

I felt the same when I bought the new Cambridge Biographical Encyclopaedia in 1998 (the people here didn't have to be dead and included - I see, checking randomly - the Beach Boys, Michael Portillo, Kevin Keegan). What are the likely criteria for inclusion? How do those criteria differ from those of Leslie Stephen when he prepared the first edition of the DNB? Will some entries be removed by the time the next edition is prepared?

Intriguing who gets in and who doesn't. Without my name appearing properly in either I'm apparently in two tomes: Who's Who & Debrett's Peerage. I get in the former because my dad made it to the rank of Archdeacon in the Anglican communion and this I'm in as a "1s" for his entry, the latter I am in as some kind of note as I'm married to someone who is part of a family that gets listed. Neither of us are entirely sure why. I haven't checked my entry in either.

I also remember coming across a "Who Was Who" in Gregynog library that listed everyone of note who'd died in the 1940s (I think it was published in 1950). Using the familar Who's Who set-up it did indeed list everyone in the 'born, schooled, married, achieved, clubs' set-up. Including Adolf Hitler. I wish I could remember if it listed hobbies.

The inclusion of Harry Patch strikes me as more interesting than Jade Goody. When I saw him interviewed I found him interesting but it seems his 'achievements' were in living to such an age and time when the voices of the tommies became important - rather than anything he, along with millions of others, experienced in the first World War.

[french frank]

I also remember coming across a "Who Was Who" in Gregynog library that listed everyone of note who'd died in the 1940s (I think it was published in 1950). Using the familar Who's Who set-up it did indeed list everyone in the 'born, schooled, married, achieved, clubs' set-up. Including Adolf Hitler. I wish I could remember if it listed hobbies.

He's still included in the online Who Was Who. It even gives two addresses for him (former, I assume). No hobbies listed ...

[vinteuil]

He's still included in the online Who Was Who. It even gives two addresses for him (former, I assume). No hobbies listed ...

... I see he is in my most recent edition of the Almanach de Gotha. But then I see that my most recent copy of the Almanach is dated 1943

[salymap]

And in my 1934 copy of Rouledge's he is simply 'German Chancellor'. By the timeI was given the book [1940] he was a lot better known unfortunately.

[gingerjon]

And in my 1934 copy of Rouledge's he is simply 'German Chancellor'. By the timeI was given the book [1940] he was a lot better known unfortunately.

Any hobbies?

[salymap]

Any hobbies?

'Taking over the world perhaps ? Not mentioned.