Books by Aleck Loker

These are the stories you never learned in school. Ice Ace voyagers, Chinese, Viking, Phoenician, Hebrew, Libyan, and Irish explorers came to America years before Columbus.

This book outlines eighteen different waves of adventurers who came to America, some to settle permanently, others just to trade for natural resources of the New World. Many of these stories are controversial, but taken in their entirety, they make for a compelling argument that the simplistic story of Columbus "discovering" America can no longer be accepted.

This volume provides the six biographies previously published as individual booklets in the Profiles in Colonial History series. The book provides a larger format, with minor editorial changes, but otherwise includes all the material in the individual biographies. 185 pages with 30 illustrations. Order from your favorite bookstore, bn.com, or click the order button at the top of the page to order via e-mail

Loak’s Tale is an adventure of Beatrice and Thomas, two modern middle-schoolers visiting Colonial Williamsburg who hear a story of a doctor’s daughter and an apprentice wheelwright forbidden by the doctor to see each other. This story, told by a very unusual narrator, portrays life in eighteenth-century Williamsburg as the two young people solve their problem and find a way to be together. Illustrated in full color by award winning watercolorist Lynn Hosegood, the characters are accurately depicted in period costumes.

The book is 40 pages with 9 captivating illustrations. Click the button at the top of the page to order by e-mail or request from your favorite bookstore.

This is the charming tale of two little girls who find a strange egg in their sandbox. From the egg hatches an adventure that will thrill and delight young readers and their parents. The book is 40 pages with 24 captivating illustrations.Click the button at the top of the page to order by e-mail or request from your favorite bookstore.

Fein, chief of a prehistoric clan in Iberia, leads his band of explorers to North America 18,000 years ago. After withstanding a frigid voyage in open boats, they travel up a river and settle in a wooded area that is now rural Tidewater Virginia. There they live, die and, over the generations, populate the New World, leaving scant traces of their existence.

The story rockets forward to modern times with the murder of Kelly, a young anthropologist who has disappeared, captured by a sexual predator. Her fiance', Williamsburg archaeologist Rick Fallon, has struggled to put the mystery of Kelly behind him. Instead, he has taken on an investigation that thrusts her back into his life alongside a victim from the remotest American past.

This story reveals with archaeological precision an exciting new theory of the peopling of America interlaced with a series of modern-day murders, violent horrors, death and unanticipated bravery.

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Twenty years before the founding of Jamestown in Virginia, Sir Walter Ralegh sent more than 100 men, women and children to an uncertain fate in his New World colony that he called "Virginia." Due to unforseen and tragic circumstances, those settlers were left for three years abandoned at Roanoke Island in modern-day North Carolina.

This book tells the full story of English attempts at establishing a New World settlement and puts the attempts by Sir Walter Ralegh in a longer-term context. It also recounts what befell the "Lost Colonists" and offers the most likely theory of what was their ultimate fate.

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This biography of Captain John Smith, a leader of the first permanent English colony in North America, describes his exciting life as an English soldier, mercenary, pirate, slave, and colonial adventurer. You'll learn how John Smith was selected by the Virginia Company for a position among the seven leaders dispatched to North America. And you'll learn the true story about his encounter with Powhatan and Pocahontas.

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A novel about a young boy's encounter with a crashed UFO, the subsequent crash investigation, his role in flight testing the UFO and his newly gained mastery of time travel. A coming-of-age story that provides a touch of history and science in an entertaining plot. Suitable for children from middle school to old age.

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This thirty-six page booklet provides a history of the formation of the Chesapeake, the transformation of the climate from arctic to temperate, and the cultural changes that occurred within the human population during the last 20,000 years. It is written for middle school through high school children, but is also of interest to adults. The book makes a good adjunct to Chesapeake Bay museum exhibits and school social studies courses.

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The history of the county seat of St. Mary's County, Maryland. This book contains numerous pictures of Leonardtown and its people throughout history, and recounts how this vibrant Southern Maryland community has emerged as the center of government, education, and commerce in that region.

This book is available from the Commissioners of Leonardtown

Contact them by e-mail leonardtown.commissioners@verizon.net

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A comprehensive history of the court system in St. Mary's County, Maryland

This booklet outlines the development of the courts, the buildings that housed them and the people who served as judges, sheriffs, states attorneys, and clerks of the court.

24 pages with illustrations

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A reexamination of a notorious murder in a small Maryland town in 1924.

The accused murderer, an African American who was associated with the prominent white victim, was removed to the state capitol for his trial and his safety.

This booklet provides an analysis of the trial and speculates on the ultimate guilt or innocence of the accused.

24 pages with illustrations

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Traces the origin of the Maryland Colony and its contributions to human rights and democracy in America.

22 pages with illustrations

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A biography of one of the most important yet often overlooked women in American history. Margaret Brent demanded the right to vote in 1649 in the Maryland Assembly--her demand was denied. But she went on to be one of the most successful colonists in Maryland and Virginia.

32 pages with illustrations

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Patrick Henry was so much more than the rabble-rouser that much of history has portrayed him. This biography illustrates how Henry came to his belief that separation from Great Britain was inevitable and shows how Henry contributed to the development of a federal government that attempted to balance states' rights with the need for a strong central government.

33 pages with illustrations

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George Wythe served his Commonwealth of Virginia as a patriot and stateman during the American Revolution. He was a serious and somber orator in contrast to Patrick Henry's style, but equally effective at leading his fellow burgesses to the right decision. He was America's first law professor in America's first law school at the College of William and Mary. He invented the style of instruction still used today: moot courts, mock legislative sessions. He taught Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall and Henry Clay, among many other notables. He died at age 80, victim of murder in Richmond. 40 pages with illustrations. Order from your favorite bookstore, bn.com, or click the order button at the top of the page to order via e-mail

Peyton Randolph, President of the First Continental Congress, came from a wealthy Virginia family. His father, Sir John Randolph, was Speaker of the House of Burgesses. Peyton Randolph exceeded his fathers accomplishments, becoming the spokesperson for Virginia in the American Revolution, but died before his vision of an independent America was realized. 48 pages with illustrations. Order from your favorite bookstore, bn.com, or click the order button at the top of the page to order via e-mail

Thomas Harriot served as Walter Ralegh's scientist and explorer with the first English settlement in North America at Roanoke Island. But Harriot contributed so much more to science and mathematics than his report of the natural resources and Native Americans in the New World. Harriot had many important firsts in the annals of science and mathematics, but accusations of heresy prevented him from publishing his work. As a result, he remains relatively unknown today. This profile gives him some of the credit he deserves. 48 pages with illustrations. Order from your favorite bookstore, bn.com, or click the order button at the top of the page to order via e-mail