Book cover titled 'Aristotle in the Branding Corral' by Povy La Farge Bigbee, featuring a person riding a horse in a rural landscape with mountains in the background.

About the Book

Aristotle in the Branding Corral is a sweeping memoir that captures both the grandeur and the grit of ranch life in New Mexico. At its heart is a love story between Povy LaFarge Bigbee—an East Coast socialite turned scholar—and John Bigbee, a cowboy whose roots ran deep in the high desert. Together they forged a life that balanced cattle, children, and community, all under the wide skies of the American West.

Blending philosophy with family history, Povy reflects on how Aristotle’s ideas about happiness and virtue took shape in the corral, at the branding fire, and across the open ranges. Through stories of homesteading, rodeos, and the daily challenges of ranching, she reveals a lifestyle that is both vanishing and timeless, rooted in self-reliance, resilience, and humor.

More than a family chronicle, this memoir is also a vivid portrait of New Mexico itself—its land grants, its communities, and the cultures that converged on its rugged soil. From the clang of branding irons to spontaneous housewarmings in remote ranch houses, Povy’s voice brings to life the lessons and values that remain urgent today: the importance of land, community, and shared purpose.

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About the author

Povy LaFarge Bigbee carved a remarkable path from her beginnings on Park Avenue in New York City to a life dedicated to the rugged ranches of New Mexico and Colorado. As one of the first women in the United States to earn a degree in agriculture in 1955, Povy combined her intellectual curiosity with a deep passion for philosophy, livestock, and horses. She is the daughter of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Oliver LaFarge (Laughing Boy, 1929) and the wife of John Franklin Bigbee, a renowned rancher and legislator.

Povy lives in La Mesa with her husband, John. Aristotle in the Branding Corral is her first book.

Smiling elderly woman with short gray hair, large dark glasses, wearing a white blouse and layered necklaces, in a warm, art-filled room.

  • “Representing this remote, historic land gave us a deeply ingrained affection for the tiny towns and vast lands that we might never otherwise have known."

    —Povy La Farge Bigbee, Aristotle in the Branding Corral

  • “Gather these feelings in one life, and the very essence of the person becomes stronger. Thus it is that we recount these events… knowing that somehow it ends up as solid steel in the soul."

    —Povy La Farge Bigbee, Aristotle in the Branding Corral

  • “Poor or rich, stupid or clever, running away from another life or opening their hearts to the new lands and whatever waited there—the people came to New Mexico, people like the Bigbees and the Penrys."

    —Povy La Farge Bigbee, Aristotle in the Branding Corral

  • “In the fall of 1939… Suddenly I was lifted up and placed on Carney’s saddle right in front of him… We loped out into the brilliant arena to all the noise and applause and the band playing the national anthem. It was grand!”

    Povy La Farge Bigbee, Aristotle in the Branding Corral

A book that captures the spirit of love, loss, and renewal on the last open ranges.

An old, small house with a corrugated metal roof, brick steps leading up to a boarded-up door, and a stone foundation. The house is in black and white.
A young man wearing a cowboy hat and a yellow plaid shirt, smiling outdoors with a cloudy sky in the background.
Two men are tending to a dead animal on the ground outdoors in a rural or farm setting. One man is squatting and the other is standing, both are near the animal.
A young woman wearing a white cowboy hat and a plaid shirt, sitting outdoors behind a wire fence, with grass and trees in the background.
A cowboy on horseback jumping over a wooden fence while two other children watch.

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