Dale Smith

Writer/photographer Dale Smith's fascination with the natural world began at an early age. Smith is the author of “Alice’s World,” an environmental fiction series for juvenile and young adult readers. His first book, “What the Parrot Told Alice,” was published in 1996 to rave reviews. His second book, “What the Orangutan Told Alice,” which became available in October 2001, also received high praise from the environmental community, including Jane Goodall. A third book, “What the Tortoise Told Alice,” was published in September 2015.

To research “What the Orangutan Told Alice,” Smith traveled to Indonesian Borneo on three separate occasions to study and photograph orangutans. His book is illustrated with over thirty of his photographs.

Smith has been a photographer since the late 1960s. As a student at the California College of Arts and Crafts, he documented the counter culture movement in San Francisco Bay Area. He also photographed many of the Beat generation poets and early rock musicians who shaped the 1960s, including Allen Ginsberg, Michael McClure, Phillip Whalen, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, Brian Jones and Jim Morrison. 

Inspired by the birth of his daughter Alice in 1991, Smith set aside his career as an advertising creative director to focus on writing books which he hopes will inspire young readers to get involved in helping make the earth a better place for all living things.

Smith spends most of his time in Bahia de Los Angeles, on the Baja peninsula, on the Sea of Cortez, on the edge of the desert, on the edge of the sea, with Cooper, his Scottish terrier.