The Soul of the Wolf: A Meditation on Wolves and Man [Paperback]

Michael, W Fox (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 29, 1997

A rich portrait of the life and behavior of the wolf, and a moving meditation on man's kinship with the natural world. Black & white photographs.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Scholar and Humane Society of the United States official Fox's appreciation of the endangered predator first appeared in 1980. Photos.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Burford Books (December 29, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558211500
• ISBN-13: 978-1558211506
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,123,225 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wolves too have souls., July 2, 2001

By 

tepi "tepi" - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Soul of the Wolf: A Meditation on Wolves and Man (Paperback)

THE SOUL OF THE WOLF : A Meditation on Wolves and Man. By Michael W. Fox. 131 pp. New York : Lyons & Burford, 1992 (1980). ISBN 1-55821-150-0 (pbk.)

A few years ago I read a whole shelf of books on animals - Animal Rights, Animal Theology, Animal Experimentation, Ranching and the Meat-Packing Industry, and books on individual animals such as elephants, whales, gorillas, chimpanzees, pigs, sea otters, hamsters, and so on. Although all of the books were extremely informative, and left me with a considerably heightened respect for the many wonderful qualities and powers of our animal kin, one book seemed somehow different and more inspiring than the others : Michael W. Fox's 'The Soul of the Wolf.'

Although all of the books are still sitting on my shelves, I never open them anymore. I don't even like to be reminded of them. They're just too depressing. For what all of them have in common is that they bring home forcefully the enormity of the crime that we daily and unconsciously perpetrate against animals all across the globe. Tens of millions of animals are daily tortured to death in laboratories dedicated to the worship of Mammon. Tens of millions of others are cruelly slaughtered to provide some of the unhealthiest food that humans have ever eaten.

In contrast to the average unthinking selfish denizen of the modern world, who tacitly agrees to the prevailing evil, and who seemingly couldn't care less about the sufferings of animals, Michael W. Fox comes over not merely as a concerned and compassionate figure, but as a truly saintly person.

He has lived with wolves. He has seen very deeply into their nature. He respects them as fellow creatures with whom we have many things in common, but who at the same time are vastly superior to us in many respects. And he has understood, of course, that they too have a soul.

His book is at one and the same time both inspiring and profoundly saddening. We are inspired by the marvel that is the wolf; we are sickened at modern man's treatment of this fellow creature.

In the Buddhist Prajnaparamita literature there is a wonderful verse:

"For all creatures, O Lord, desire happiness; all creatures desire happiness and are averse to suffering...."

Most of us, presumably, are aware of this, but if you read Fox you will also become aware that wolves too are every bit as deserving of happiness, if not moreso, as the humans who are involved in a cosmic crime, not only against wolves, but against the whole of nature, for wolves too have souls.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just wonderful..., March 20, 2000

By 

Dawn Wolf - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Soul of the Wolf: A Meditation on Wolves and Man (Paperback)

Michael Fox has an amazing and refreshing understanding of wolves and their world. Not your typical coldly scientific wolf biology book. I highly recommend this to anyone who has even a bit of an interest in wolves or canines in general.