99 tips from America's Cowboy Poet on how to carve a living out of thin air and live with yourself while you do it "Probably the nation's most successful living poet." --New York Times Part memoir, part how-to, all Baxter Black,The Trail Less Traveledis a humorous, witty take on making a living by doing the right thing and trying everything. According to Baxter Black, success "does not require a genius; it just requires the persistence of a glacier. Remember, often it's not ability that gets you ahead, it's reliability. The world is run by those who show up." A mind-tickling romp through the formation, fermentation, and fruition of the author's career as a poet in a country where publishing poetry is "practically illegal," The Trail Less Traveledboldly injects a poem now and again when it is relevant, just to prove a point! It's instructional for the entrepreneur, inspirational for the ambitious, and entertaining for the teeming masses. Since it is also a story of continuously overcoming the odds,The Trail Less Traveledleaves a trail of self-improvement and motivational tortilla crumbs that readers will follow with delight--before, that is, squirreling them away in their own cerebral pockets for later use.

Baxter Black is known to millions of NPR listeners for his incomparable voice and insights as America’s Cowboy Poet and as a large-animal veterinarian. Raised in New Mexico, he earned his doctorate in Colorado in veterinary medicine and practiced for thirteen years in the livestock business. He would still be there if, in his words, “cowboy poetry had not hijacked my life.” His books include, most recently, The Back Page: The Best of Baxter Black from Western Horseman, and Hey, Cowboy, Wanna Get Lucky?. For thirty years he has performed cowboy poetry across the United States and Canada. He lives in Benson, Arizona.