He wrote over 30 books, including novels.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baxter_Black

https://www.npr.org/2022/06/13/1104529533/baxter-black-obituary
(some of this is funny)

By Rachel Treisman

First paragraphs:

Baxter Black — the cowboy poet, philosopher, large-animal veterinarian and longtime Morning Edition commentator — died at age 77 on Friday.

He is being remembered for his witty and insightful analysis on a wide range of issues — from Thanksgiving turkeys to childrens' names to the Supreme Court — always from the perspective of a Western farmer and rancher.

"He was sort of a Will Rogers kind of a character and that he saw things clearly and he knew how to say them in a humorous and nonthreatening way," recalls folklorist and musician Hal Cannon, who was friends with Black for more than 30 years.
Black was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1945 and grew up in Las Cruces, New Mexico. He was a senior class president and National FFA Organization president, and also rode bulls throughout high school and college. ("You either are [a cowboy], or you aren't. You never have to decide," he wrote in an FAQ on his website.)

After graduating from veterinary school at Colorado State University in 1969 Black went on to practice as a large-animal veterinarian, where he remembered his most thrilling call was "looking at a cow that might have been rabid or one that might have had anthrax."...

(snip)

https://www.legacy.com/news/celebrity-deaths/baxter-black-1945-2022-cowboy-poet-and-npr-commentator/
(includes a short video and several tweets)

Excerpt:

Black was a large animal veterinarian before he became national known as a poet, working with animals for more than a decade. In the early 1980s, his folksy, sometimes funny writing began gaining attention, starting with his first published poetry collection, 1980’s “The Cowboy and His Dog: or, ‘Go Git in the Pickup!’” A 1988 poem written while wildfires raged in Yellowstone National Park was picked up by NPR, adding to Black’s widespread recognition. He appeared several times on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” and continued publishing books of his poetry and fiction. In 2002, Black joined “Morning Edition” as a regular commentator. He hosted the radio program “Baxter Black on Monday” and wrote the syndicated newspaper column “On the Edge of Common Sense.”