diff --git a/Doc/Makefile b/Doc/Makefile
index 4d7619b..a2da302 100644
--- a/Doc/Makefile
+++ b/Doc/Makefile
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@
 
 # This is the *documentation* release, and is used to construct the file
 # names of the downloadable tarballs.
-RELEASE=2.1b2
+RELEASE=2.1rc1
 
 PYTHON=	   python
 DVIPS=	   dvips -N0 -t $(PAPER)
diff --git a/Doc/texinputs/boilerplate.tex b/Doc/texinputs/boilerplate.tex
index 660f298..87c301f 100644
--- a/Doc/texinputs/boilerplate.tex
+++ b/Doc/texinputs/boilerplate.tex
@@ -6,5 +6,5 @@
 }
 
 \date{\today}			% XXX update before release!
-\release{2.1 beta 2}		% software release, not documentation
+\release{2.1 rc 1}		% software release, not documentation
 \setshortversion{2.1}		% major.minor only for software