The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses (Esprios Classics)

Robert William Service (January 16 1874 - September 11 1958) was a British-Canadian poet and writer often called the Bard of the Yukon. Born in Lancashire of Scottish descent he was a bank clerk by trade but spent long periods travelling in Western America and Canada often in some poverty. When his bank sent him to the Yukon he was inspired by tales of the Klondike Gold Rush and wrote two poems The Shooting of Dan McGrew and The Cremation of Sam McGee which showed remarkable authenticity from an author with no experience of gold-mining and enjoyed immediate popularity. Encouraged by this he quickly wrote more poems on the same theme which were published as Songs of a Sourdough.