Historical novel
The Blockade Runner
In the last days of the Civil War, Captain Silas Quinn and the schooner The Wraith face espionage, sea battles, forbidden love, and one final run through the treacherous Cape Fear shoals.
Find on AmazonHistorical fiction · Maritime history · Forgotten lives
The past was never quiet.
David Fooks writes stories from the dangerous edges of history—where wooden ships, divided loyalties, and remarkable people changed the world.
“I’m a storyteller at heart. I look for the human truth buried beneath the familiar version of history.”
Books by David Fooks
History with salt in its veins
True stories and historical novels about courage, survival, and the people too often left outside the common narrative.
Historical nonfiction
The Other Half of History
Fifteen women of courage, power, and defiance—leaders, survivors, warriors, and innovators whose lives deserve a larger place in our understanding of the past.
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Historical novel
The Most Dangerous Land
A Civil War story drawn into the shadowed waterways of the Great Dismal Swamp—a place of refuge, danger, divided loyalties, and hidden resistance.
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Maritime history
Sailors of the Tall Ships
Behind every tall ship was a crew of real people—and a sea of untold stories. This vivid history explores the sailors, explorers, women at sea, naval battles, humor, terror, and resilience of the Age of Sail, from 1450 to 1850.
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About the author
Researcher, sailor, craftsman—and lifelong collector of untold stories.
David Fooks spent almost twenty years as Executive Director of the Kutztown Folk Festival and four decades working with folklife festivals across the country. He also served as a folklife researcher and as Assistant Director of the Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center at Kutztown University.
A professional woodcarver and lifelong sailor, David worked in a wooden boatyard on the Chesapeake Bay and with the USF Constellation Foundation. His books grow from that same hands-on fascination with craft, the sea, and the lesser-known people who made history.
Enter another time