EXPANSIVENESS IN WHO'S WHO "
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—One point of importance emerges from the discussion in your columns - on the contents of Who's Who. It relates to the principle on which Who's Who is compiled. The biographical material is supplied by the person concerned and is published, apparently, without editorial revision. Hence the disproportionate values. This person sends too much and that person too little, and it follows that the amount of in- formation devoted to each subject has often no relation to the place he occupies in the public life of the time. This is a grave defect in an otherwise invaluable handbook. The remedy seems obvious. The work needs editing. When the material supplied is inadequate it should be expanded from other sources; when it is excessive, it should be blue-pencilled. In this way a certain measure of value would be achieved.
Reform Club, Pall Mall, S.W.1. A. G. G.
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