The Texas Post Office Murals
Art for the People
By Philip Parisi
Hummingbirds of Texas
with their New Mexico and Arizona Ranges
By Clifford E. Shackelford et al.
Dat
Tackling Life and the NFL
By Dat Nguyen with Rusty Burson
Aggie Savvy
Practical Wisdom from
Texas A&M
By Glenn Dromgoole
The Peppers Cookbook
200 Recipes
from the Pepper Lady’s Kitchen
By Jean Andrew
(College Station)—In an era when many university presses nationwide are slashing budgets and reducing staff—or even closing down entirely—the Texas A&M University Press is thriving.
“Soon after the Press was established in 1974, we published 16 books annually, and now we publish 60 to 65,” said Charles Backus, Press director. “We have more than 800 titles in all, and the great majority remain in print or are available in on-demand and electronic editions.”
Although it is a leader in publishing Texas history, Texas A&M Press publishes more than just state and regional interest books and is listed among the top 20 presses at public universities in the country. The Press is known for its scholarly works on military history, natural history, nautical archaeology, aviation, the presidency, economics and even Eastern Europe.
Through the A&M Press Consortium, the Press also markets and distributes more than 700 additional titles published by nine other institutions in this region, including Texas Christian University and Southern Methodist University.
A highlight of the fall season was the Texas Book Festival held on the grounds of the State Capitol in Austin at the end of October.
“We were proud to have the largest publisher exhibit at the festival,” said Backus. “Thirteen Consortium authors were featured on panels or individual sessions covering everything from dragonflies to civil rights. A number of other Texas authors also stopped by the exhibit to visit and sign books.”
The Press falls under the administrative control of the provost. Manuscripts are reviewed by the Press’ director and editorial staff and at least two experts in that field. Those that receive favorable reviews are forwarded to an advisory committee of senior faculty members at Texas A&M for approval.
Of the hundreds of manuscripts and proposals that come to the Press each year, most do not survive this rigorous selection process.
“Many people think that all of our authors are members of the faculty at Texas A&M, but only about 15 percent are,” Backus said. “We attract writers nationally and internationally whose works add to the scholarship in our major thematic areas.”
About 175 books published by the A&M Press have won competitive grants and awards, including the Roland H. Bainton Book Prize for Art History, the Harry S. Truman Award, the Western Heritage Award, several Outstanding Academic Books awards from Choice Magazine, and other coveted prizes from state and national scholarly organizations. The Press has also received 23 awards for design and production.
As the A&M System expanded in recent decades, Texas A&M University Press’s list also grew to reflect the diversity and regions where A&M System institutions are located.
The following are a few of the new books by A&M System authors or in series sponsored by System campuses:
Tarleton State University’s Southwestern Studies in the Humanities Series is the first System series, established in 1985. The Press is proud to announce Charles Russell’s new book as Number Twenty in the Series.
Undaunted: A Norwegian Woman in Frontier Texas is the biography of Elise Waerenskjold, a nineteenth-century immigrant. Russell, who holds Ph.D.s from Columbia University and the University of Connecticut, will be honored with a reception at the Norwegian Consul-General in Houston for his research on Waerenskjold.
From the work of two innovative scientists on Tarleton campus comes A Dazzle of Dragonflies. Forrest L. Mitchell and James L. Lasswell’s book has gotten the attention of such prestigious publications as Science Magazine, American Scientist, Library Journal, and the Chronicle of Higher Education.
A&M-International, in Laredo, sponsors the Fronteras Series.
LULAC, Mexican Americans, and National Policy by Craig A. Kaplowitz, the fourth book in this series, according to one historian, “takes Mexican American history in cutting edge directions.”
A&M-Kingsville sponsors two series.
The newest book in the Perspectives on South Texas series is Nesting Birds of a Tropical Frontier, a natural history of the little-known breeding bird communities of Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, one of the most important birding areas in the world.
And to look back to 2002, it’s important to mention this award-winning title—Racial Borders: Black Soldiers along the Rio Grande, by James Leiker—in the South Texas Regional Studies series. The prestigious T. R. Fehrenbach award was presented to the author for the book making the greatest contribution to Texas history in that year.
A&M-Corpus Christi is the sponsor of the Gulf Coast Studies series.
Number Eight in this series, Sally E. Antrobus’s Galveston Bay serves not only as a guide to what’s happening in, on, and to the bay, but also makes readers aware of steps to preserve the bay.
Stephen Curley’s lively history of Texas A&M University at Galveston is available in Aggies by the Sea. A professor there for more than 30 years, Dr. Curley has witnessed most the development he describes in his book.
A&M-Commerce’s Sam Rayburn Series on Rural Life will feature its eighth book this fall.
Texas Woman of Letters, Karle Wilson Baker is a biography of one of Texas’ best-known poets of the early twentieth century by Sarah Ragland Jackson.
Yellow Dogs and Republicans by Ricky F. Dobbs, an assistant professor at A&M-Commerce, recently won the East Texas Historical Association’s Ottis Lock award.
West Texas A&M University Series’ most recent book is The Lonesome Plains by Louis Fairchild, which draws a moving picture of life in West Texas during the frontier-rural period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Washington Times called it “a powerful book that quietly and slowly penetrates deeply into the reader's soul and brings vividly to life a bit of American history that isn't so long gone.”
Texas A&M University Press Consortium books are available at retail stores or direct from the Press. Aggies, former students, faculty and staff of A&M system campuses need only use the ‘AG’ code to receive a 20 percent discount on books when ordered directly from the Press. Visit our website or call (800) 826-8911 during normal working hours.