American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West

Nate Blakeslee is the author of American Wolf. He is a Texan writer whose work can also be found in Texas Monthly. His first book, Tulia (2006), tackled issues of race and wrongful conviction in his home state. In American Wolf, Blakeslee leans out of the narrative, relying on his interviews with other key figures (and their notes) to portray events in Yellowstone Park and beyond its borders. Only in the Epilogue does Blakeslee insert himself into the story to reveal his interactions with Steven Turnbull. Still, he cleaves to a traditional journalist’s role otherwise and keeps this detour into the subjective distinct from the main narrative.

Rick is the main human protagonist and works under Doug Smith for the Wolf Project. He is a park guide, a wolf-spotter, and a longtime wolf fan who first fell in love with the animals when working at Denali National Park in Alaska. Rick has written extensively about the animals, but for most of this story, he is hamstrung by his obsessive need to watch the wolves every day, taking copious notes about their behavior. Blakeslee tends to juxtapose Rick with the wolves he is watching—for example, 755 after O-Six’s death—which likens Rick to a wandering wolf in search of a pack.