Edward J. Rice was an American author, publisher, photojournalist and painter, born in Brooklyn, New York to Edward J. Rice, Sr. and Elsie (Becker) Rice. He was best known as a close friend and biographer of Thomas Merton. Rice wrote more than 20 books, including Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton, a best-selling 1990 biography of the famous 19th-century explorer, and was the founder (1953) of Jubilee magazine.