Take one guess at the occupation of the man pictured.

Well, he's obviously Jewish, given his name is Isaac Raboy. So... doctor? Lawyer? Writer?

Did you say "writer"? Don't act all surprised, you're absolutely correct! Must be up on your early 20th century Yiddish American literature! But Raboy was more than just a writer. Raboy was also a cowboy.

How is that for a surprise?

Raboy worked at a hat factory in New York, but then decided he needed some open space. So he moved to the openest space of them all — North Dakota (thus making him the first and last Jew to ever set foot in North Dakota). There, he became a cowboy, working on a horse ranch.

However, he didn't there for long, moved back to New York and wrote about his experiences in a novel, "The Yiddish Cowboy".

A Jewish writer who tried to be a cowboy but quickly returned to being a writer?

Nothing surprising...