Robert William Service was born 16 January 1874 in Preston, England, but
also lived in Scotland before emigrating to Canada in 1894. Service went
to the Yukon Territory in 1904 as a bank clerk, and became famous for
his poems about this region, which are mostly in his first two books of
poetry. He wrote quite a bit of prose as well, and worked as a reporter
for some time, but those writings are not nearly as well known as his
poems. He travelled around the world quite a bit, and died 11 September
1958 in France.
Service's Books of Poetry:
The Spell of the Yukon (1907) a.k.a. Songs of a Sourdough
Ballads of a Cheechako (1909)
Rhymes of a Rolling Stone (1912)
Rhymes of a Red Cross Man (1916)
Ballads of a Bohemian (1921)
Bar-Room Ballads (1940)
The Complete Poems (1947?) [This is simply a compilation
of the six books.]
[Note: A Sourdough is an old-timer, while a Cheechako is a newbie.]
A few other books by Robert W. Service: