For Waco history buffs, 2010 has seen three new books touching on different aspects of a city with more than 160 years’ worth: “Lust, Violence, Religion: Life in Historic Waco,” compiled by Brad Turner; Mark Firmin’s “William Cameron Park: A Centennial History;” and “Historic McLennan County, An Illustrated History,” edited by Karen Bracken.

The newcomers join a number of books on Waco and McLennan County history and raise the question: What titles need to belong on a Waco history bookshelf?

It’s a question already asked by the Waco History Project, says David Lintz, executive director of the Red Men Museum and Library, which offers one of the city’s largest collection of Waco histories. The WHP’s answer — 11 essential titles and more than 80 supplemental ones — is on its website, www.wacohistoryproject.org (click on Resources).

Scott Fagner / Tribune-Herald

On that list, and heading most of the ones suggested by local historians and librarians, are Roger Conger’s “A Pictorial History of Waco,” drawn from Waco photographer Fred Gildersleeve’s extensive photo archives, and Patricia Wallace’s “Waco, A Sesquicentennial History,” written for the city’s 150th anniversary.

Waco-McLennan County Library reference librarian Sean Sutcliffe notes both books are general in scope and good starting places. Conger, a former Waco mayor and longtime city historian, and Wallace, a retired Baylor University history professor, wrote multiple books on Waco history and related subjects.

The Historic Waco Foundation offers several of their books and about a half-dozen other Waco history works in its headquarters’ bookstore and those found in the HWF’s historic homes. The foundation’s offices has an extensive library of related works as well. Don Davis, the foundation’s executive director, points out that the WHF’s periodical “Waco Heritage & History” provides a rich, detailed look at various aspects of Waco history in its compiled volumes and some back issues are available for sale.

Baylor history professor James SoRelle, who has written and researched several topics of Waco history over the years, including issues of race relations and civil rights, said much recent research and writing on Waco history tend to be on smaller, more focused topics: the Waco Reservation, a legal prostitution district; singer Jules Bledsoe; Navy hero Doris Miller; the Waco Interurban railroad; and the like.

Rather than full-fledged books, those writers are looking to publish in periodicals and journals or as graduate theses and dissertations, he said.

A look at the small and independent publishers for many books on Waco history shows one reason why there may be gaps on Waco’s history bookshelf: Larger publishers are less likely to back books they see has having little more than local appeal. Several of those Waco book publishers, in fact, are no longer in business.

A publisher’s interest in audience appeal may partially explain the predominance of pictorial books among Waco’s general histories.

While a Waco history bookshelf would have a good number of books, those interviewed for this story say there’s plenty of room for more. “There’s a big hole in ethnic histories and the history of the common person,” Lintz said. “Waco probably is not isolated in this. But Waco’s history is so complicated and convoluted that I don’t know how you’d straighten it out on paper.”

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Waco history books — a starting point

Waco in general

“Waco: A Sesquicentennial History” — Patricia Ward Wallace; Donning Co., 1999

“A Pictorial History of Waco, Revised edition” — Roger S. Conger; Texian Press, 1995

“A Pictorial History of Waco, Vol. II, Photographs from the Collection of James F. Jasek” — eds. Robert E. Davis and Barbara Walker; Texian Press, 2000

“Images of America: Waco” — Eric S. Ames; Arcadia Publishing, 2009

“Historic McLennan County, An Illustrated History” — ed. Sharon Bracken; Historical Publishing Network, 2010

“Lust, Violence, Religion: Life in Historic Waco” — Brad Turner, compiler; TSTC Publishing, 2010

Waco events

“The Texas Cotton Palace” — Lavonia Jenkins Barnes; Heritage Society of Waco, 1964

“The Waco Tornado” — John Edward Weems; Doubleday, 1977

“The First Waco Horror: The Lynching of Jesse Washington and the Rise of the NAACP” — Patricia Bernstein; Texas A&M University Press, 2005

“The Making of a Lynching Culture: Violence and Vigilantism in Central Texas, 1836-1916” — William Carrigan; University of Illinois Press, 2004

Waco places

“Early Homes of Waco, and the People Who Lived In Them” — Lavonia Jenkins Barnes; Texian Press, 1970

“William Cameron Park: A Centennial History 1910-2010” — Mark Firmin; Big Bear Books, 2010

Waco people

“A Spirit So Rare: A History of the Women of Waco” (24 notable Waco women) — Patricia Ward Wallace; Texian Press, 1984

“Madison Cooper” (Waco philanthropist and “Sironia” novelist Madison Cooper) — Marion Travis; Word Books, 1971

“Brann and the Iconoclast” (Controversial author and editor William S. Brann)— Charles Carver; University of Texas Press, 1985; also, Jerry Flemmons’ play “O Dammit!;” Texas Tech University Press, 1998

“No Excuses Accepted” (Waco civil rights pioneer Robert Gilbert) — Robert Gilbert with Nancy Barcus; Broadman Press, 1988

“Waco’s Champion: Selections from the Papers of Roger N. Conger” (Waco historian Roger N. Conger)— ed. Marion Travis; Historic Waco Foundation, 1990

Others

“The Handbook of Waco and McLennan County, Texas” — ed. Dayton Kelley; Texian Press, 1972

“African American Heritage in Waco, Texas” — Garry Radford; Eakin Press, 2000

“McLennan County — Before 1980” — William Poage; Texian Press, 1981

“Waco, Texas Postcards” — Agnes Barnes; Arcadia Publishing, 1999