The Friends of the Vicksburg Military Park and Campaign is going into the publishing business.

Friends executive director Bess Averett said the organization will print a second edition of the book “Art of Commemoration,” a special commemorative book that was printed in 2012 for the observance of the sesquicentennial of the Siege of Vicksburg.

“Right now, we’re getting things ready to go for when we can start printing,” she said.

“Art of Commemoration” lists 21 monuments in the Vicksburg National Military Park including the state memorials, memorials for units that participated in the siege and for individuals like Gen. Stephen D. Lee, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, Gen. John Pemberton and the Mississippi African-American Monument.

It also provides directions to each memorial— including GPS coordinates — and a description and history of the monument and its sculptor.

“It was such a popular book that we decided to see if we could continue its publication,” Averett said. “The
biggest thing we had to do was get the intellectual property from the VCVB.”

She said Friends has contacted several printers for estimates to print the book, which will be sold at the Military Park bookstore by Eastern National, a non-profit organization that operates bookstores at national parks to support the country’s national park system. No price has been determined.

“We’re also checking with other Civil War national parks to see if the book can be distributed there, because most of the parks have a Vicksburg section,” she said.

Funded by a $25,000 National Park Service Lower Mississippi Delta Initiative Grant and $15,000 from the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, 50,000 copies of the book were printed for distribution at the Visitors Bureau’s information center on Clay Street and were available by email. Because of the federal grant, the first run of books was distributed free.

Averett said a number of books from that initial printing are still available.

“We will not start publishing any more books until the others are gone,” she said.