david rains wallace (born 1945) is an american writer who has published more than twenty books on conservation and natural history, including "the monkey's bridge" (a 1997 new york times notable book) and "the klamath knot" (1984 burroughs medal). he has written articles for the national geographic society, the nature conservancy, the sierra club, and other groups. wallace's work also has appeared in "harper's magazine", "the new york times", "sierra", wilderness and other periodicals.