History Books

William C. Levere has often been called the second-greatest member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, just behind Noble Leslie DeVotie himself. Levere served not only as the first Eminent Supreme Recorder but also as an editor of The Record and was the organization’s first historian as well. His first work, the three-volume History of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, chronicled the Fraternity’s happenings from its founding up through the year of the book’s publication in 1911 — all in meticulous detail. Lavishly footnoted and annotated, the History took Levere more than four years to complete.

But, of course, our history didn’t stop there. In 1973, Fraternity Historian Joseph W. Walt — the same brother who served as editor of The Phoenix for the 5th through the 11th editions — published The Era of Levere, an account of the Fraternity that detailed our history from the end of The History of Sigma Alpha Epsilon to the year 1930. The next volume, however, remains to be written.

With such a long history, Sigma Alpha Epsilon has written many books on its history and happenings, from The Sigma Alpha Epsilon Manual of the 19th century and SAE in the World War by Levere in the early 20th century to publications such as Minerva’s Shield, The Spiritual Heritage of SAE, The Ritual, the Mystic Scroll and informational releases on current events.