He is best known as the author of Wooden Ships and Iron Men, a now-classic 1924 book about the last days of the Age of Sail in Maritime Canada.

[1] He would also write short stories for such pulp magazines as Adventure between 1912 and 1922[2] Wallace began publishing novels in 1907, beginning with Blue Water and several other works including ‘’Salt Seas and Sailormen’’ (Copyright, Canada 1922), and Captain Salvation (1925).

About forty years later than he preferred to, he said, in 1924 he published Wooden Ships and Iron Men as a testament to the spirit of the Age of Sail.

In 1929 he wrote Bound for the Rio Grande, an operetta based on English shanties, performed at the 1929 CPR Festival in Vancouver.

[7] His epic poem about his time aboard the Effie M. Morrissey, "The Log of the Record Run," was widely read and adopted by east coast fishermen with such authentic results that it was mistaken as a very old traditional song by folklorist Helen Creighton.