The Branding Iron

Joan Carver is raised in the Wyoming high country by a violent trapper father, runs away from him, and marries the rancher Pierre Landis within hours of meeting him. The marriage holds until a young preacher’s interest in Joan’s education rouses Pierre’s jealousy. Drunk and certain he has been wronged, he ties her down and burns his cattle brand into her shoulder. Prosper Gael, a cultivated author living hidden in a nearby canyon, hears her scream, shoots Pierre, and carries her off, later telling her that her husband is dead. The rest follows Joan out of the mountains and into New York, where she makes a name on the stage. Burt wrote from her own ranch at the foot of the Tetons. Published in 1919 and filmed the following year.