One hundred years ago, a shy bank clerk sent a collection of his poems south from the Yukon to be privately published and shared with a small group of friends. Fate intervened, however, and Robert Service, Sam McGee and Dan McGrew became household names across North America and throughout the British Commonwealth.

Service spent the decade prior to the First World War sating his wanderlust by travelling across North America. His adventures included a trip that ranks as one of the great northern river journeys of his era. He went to Europe and served in the war in many capacities. He lived much of his life in France with his wife and daughter; they spent the Second World War in North America, summering in Vancouver, BC, and wintering in the Los Angeles area. An intensely private man, Service remained an enigmatic character until his passing in 1958.

Enid Mallory's Robert Service: Under the Spell of the Yukon celebrates the centennial of the poet's first book of verse by shedding new light on the life and career of this intriguing man. Service will always be Canada's "Bard of the Yukon" and Alaska's de facto Poet Laureate, just as he is part of the lives of an estimated 3 million readers who know that "there are strange things done in the Midnight Sun . . . "

Enid Swerdferger Mallory was born near Ottawa, Ontario, and attended Queen’s University before becoming a social worker. After she and her husband moved to Kawartha Lakes country to start a family, her interest in regional history led to a new career of writing and storytelling. Mallory has written for Reader’s Digest, Canadian Geographic and The Beaver, and her previous books include The Remarkable Years: Canadians Remember the 20th Century, Close to the Earth: Have Your Garden and Eat it Too, Over the Counter: The Country Stores in Canada and Coppermine: The Far North of George M. Douglas. She resides in Peterborough, Ontario, with her husband, Gord.

Enid Mallory's profile page

Mallory's use of previously unpublished family papers brings our most celebrated poet into much clearer focus. —Trevor S. Raymond, Canadian Book Review annual

Robert Service: Under the Spell of the Yukon