Richard Allan “Rick” Noble started his career in publishing at Canada’s National Newspaper, The Globe and Mail. He moved to the U.S. in 1990 and continued to work as an executive in digital publishing in the newspaper, periodical, medical, aviation, and K-12 industries, before retiring in 2022. Always a history buff, Rick became interested in the Civil War during a brief period when he lived in Kentucky. His oldest daughter was born in Louisville, and some of her first restaurant meals in life were at The Old Talbott Tavern in Bardstown, Kentucky. That tavern and Bardstown both play important roles in King Cotton II: Kentucky Gold. Rick's wife was born in Wichita, Kansas, and she still has many relatives living in and around that state. A significant amount of the action in King Cotton II: Kentucky Gold and King Cotton III: Jack & the Ripper takes place in the Jayhawk State, in part as a tribute to her and her family. And the King Cotton series overall is a tribute to America, her history, and to the American West.
King Cotton III: Jack & the Ripper was the gold medal winner for best historical fiction in the 2025 CIPA EVVY Awards and winner of best western fiction in the 2026 National Indies Excellence Awards! In 2023, King Cottonwasa finalist in the National Indie Excellence Awards and a finalist for Readers' Favorite INDIES Book of the Year.
Rick holds a B.A. and an M.B.A. from the University of Toronto, and currently splits his time between Colorado and Arizona. King Cottonwas his first novel.
Richard Allan “Rick” Noble started his career in publishing at Canada’s National Newspaper, The Globe and Mail. He moved to the U.S. in 1990 and continued to work as an executive in digital publishing in the newspaper, periodical, medical, aviation, and K-12 industries, before retiring in 2022. Always a history buff, Rick became interested in the Civil War during a brief period when he lived in Kentucky. His oldest daughter was born in...
King Cotton III: Jack & the Ripper was the gold medal winner for best historical fiction in the 2025 CIPA EVVY Awards and winner of best western fiction in the 2026 National Indie Excellence Awards! It is the third entry in a series of novels documenting the exploits of Jack Bailey, the irresistible scoundrel that charmed his way through...
In the spring of 2023, a Kentucky farmer was plowing his fields when he noticed the earth behind him begin to sparkle in the sun. He jumped off his tractor and discovered that he had just unearthed hundreds of beautiful gold coins. Confederate gold coins, as it happened, the newest of which were dated 1863. And no one knows how or why they got...
King Cotton, a finalist in both the 2023 National Indie Excellence Awards and Readers' Favorite INDIES Book of the Year, is a historical fiction novel that covers all four years the U.S. Civil War. The main character, Jack Bailey, is a 24-year-old cotton exporter working out of Charleston, South Carolina, for his father’s business in Liverpool....
Last fall I was honored when King Cotton III: Jack & the Ripper won the gold medal for best historical fiction at the 2025 CIPA EVVY Awards. And I was just as happy to learn...
I will be exhibiting on Saturday, March 14, 2026 at the Tucson Festival of Books (https://tucsonfestivalofbooks.org/) on the campus of the University of Arizona.
The CIPA EVVYs is one of the longest-running book award competitions on the Indie publishing scene, running for nearly 30 years. The annual contest is sponsored by the...
