As part of this week’s Families Weekend there’s going to be a book signing on Friday from 9 until noon in the Brochstein Pavilion.  Several fantastic centennial-related works have been recently published and the authors will all be there with books available for purchase. For those of you who might be interested in a visit to one of the nicest spots on campus and a signed copy, here’s a little bit about the books. There are a lot of them, so today I’ll start with several revised editions of earlier works and tomorrow I’ll do the new books.

Randal L. Hall has updated the biography of William Marsh Rice, entitled William Marsh Rice and His Institute, first published in 1972 by Sylvia Stallings Morris Lowe based on the papers and research notes of Andrew Forrest Muir. Hall has updated this long-out-of-print book by incorporating new information that has become available and new research on various aspects of the times, and he has updated the footnote style. He has added an additional appendix that contains brief biographies of the founding trustees of the Rice Institute. The new edition is published by Texas A&M Press. Available in hardback only from the press, Amazon.com, and the Rice Campus Store.

John B. Boles has released three new editions of books related to the university. The first, Edgar Odell Lovett and the Creation of Rice University, first published in 2000 by the Rice Historical Society, consists of a long introduction, updated, and then reprints in its entirety Dr. Lovett’s 1912 address, “The Meaning of the New Institution,” which he delivered at the 1912 opening convocation. Available in paperback from the Rice Campus Store.

The second revised book is A University So Conceived: A Brief History of Rice University, first published in 1991; this is the fourth edition of the popular book. It is updated to 2012, has expanded material and more illustrations throughout, is published in a larger format, and the popular series of maps showing the expansion of the campus over the years includes the most recently completed buildings. Available in hardback and paperback editions from the Rice Campus Store.

An updated, paperback edition of his biography, University Builder: Edgar Odell Lovett and the Founding of the Rice Institute, has just been released by LSU Press. This volumes includes 16 additional pages of new material based on some 22 boxes of additional Lovett family papers newly discovered after the original edition of the book was published. Available directly from LSU Press, Amazon.com, or the Rice Campus Store.