The writing of Robert W. Service is mostly known through his poems and ballads. Immortalized by his two iconic ballads, "The Cremation of Sam McGee" and "The Shooting of Dan McGrew," he has entered the world’s imagination as the Bard of the Yukon. But Service was much more than a chronicler of the Great North.

A traveller and adventurer who tried his hand at many occupations, Service left a fascinating set of impressions: the successful literary life in the course of which he produced everything from poems and ballads to fictional romance to thrillers and how to stave off the dreary process of aging.

Robert W. Service is a fresh selection of the most interesting and significant works of the author with a biographical introduction and a select bibliography of additional readings.

Robert W. Service (1874-1958) was born in Preston, Lancashire, England, and came to Canada in 1895, eventually ending up in Yukon Territory in 1904, five years after the Klondike Gold Rush. His many books include the poetry collection The Songs of a Sourdough, the novel The Trail of '98, and the autobiography Ploughman of the Moon. Service later moved to France, where he died.

Robert W. Service's profile page

Michael Gnarowski co-edited The Making of Modern Poetry in Canada, compiled The Concise Bibliography of E nglish Canadian Literature, and edited the Critical Views on Canadian Writers Series for McGraw-Hill Ryerson. He has written for Encyclopedia Americana, The Canadian Encyclopedia, The McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of World Biography, and The Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry. Gnarowski is professor emeritus at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Michael Gnarowski's profile page

...a cleanly presented volume that might catch the attention of aspiring young poets.

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"Editor Michael Gnarowski provides a varied and entertaining selection of Service's writings, a useful biographical introduction, extensive notes and a bibliography."

Globe and Mail