Cremation of Sam McGee
and other poems
- Publisher
- Hancock House
- Initial publish date
- Jan 1989
- Category
- Canadian
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780888392237
- Publish Date
- Jan 1989
- List Price
- $7.95
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
Revisit the fiery furnace that was the grave of Sam McGee. Packed with pen and ink illustrations, this is the very best of Robert Service. Robert Service started out as a bank teller, but that changed dramatically in 1904 when his bank transferred him to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory. Like everybody else, Service was smitten by the gold fever of the great Klondike gold rush. Only Service mined words, not gold, and within five years was famous as the poet who had captured the essence of the fever, the adventure, the men, and the women. Hancock House Publishers brings back the best of Service in two softcover volumes: The Shooting of Dan McGrew and the Cremation of Sam McGee. The magic of the words is beautifully captured by award winning Mariken Van Nimwegen.
About the author
Robert Service was born in Lancashire, England in 1874, the son of lower middle class parents, the eldest of what would be ten children. When he was four, the family moved to Glasgow, Scotland and he and a brother were taken to live with his paternal grandparents and four aunts nearby in Kilwinning. In school, he was known for getting into scrapes, but mostly was a solitary and imaginative child, immersing himself in books. At a celebratory meal for his sixth birthday, he always remembered surprising the adults and even himself, with two spontaneous rhyming verses in the form of a grace, foretelling of his future and his talents.
