Books with author Robert W. (Robert William) Service

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. This text refers to the Bibliobazaar edition.

TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1.) The Law of the Yukon -- 2.) The Parson's Son -- 3.) The Spell of the Yukon -- 4.) The Call of the Wild -- 5.) The Lone Trail -- 6.) The Heart of the Sourdough -- 7.) The Three Voices -- 8.) The Pines; The Harpy -- 9.) The Lure of Little Voices -- 10.) The Song of the Wage Slave -- 11.) Grin -- 12.) The Shooting of Dan McGrew -- 13.) The Cremation of Sam McGhee -- 14.) My Madonna -- 15.) Unforgotten -- 16.) The Reckoning -- 17.) Quatrains -- 18.) The Men that Don't Fit in -- 19.) Music in the Bush -- 20.) The Rhyme of the Remittance Man -- 21.) The Low Down White -- 22.) The Little Old Log Cabin -- 23.) The Younger Son -- 24.) The March of the Dead -- 25.) Fighting Mac -- 26.) The Woman and the Angel -- 27.) The Rhyme of the Restless Ones -- 28.) New Years Eve -- 29.) Comfort -- 30.) Premonition -- 31.) The Tramps -- 32.) Lenvoi . . . . . . . . . . Reputedly the best-selling poetry collection of the 20th century, 'Songs of a Sourdough' is best known for Robert W. Service's classic Yukon ballads. Service was born in Preston, Lancashire, and grew up in Scotland. In his twenties, he made his way to Canada and settled in the Yukon where he worked as a bank clerk but evidently dreamed of more adventurous pursuits. Service's readings of his poems show that he could adopt either a Scottish or North American accent. Here they are read in an accent that is not too far removed from the place of his birth. - Summary by Phil Benson

Robert Service was born in 1874 and grew up in Scotland as the oldest of 10 siblings. Even as a child he craved excitement, but his energy was channeled into the quiet life of a bank clerk. He did enroll in the English Language and Literature program at the University of Glasgow, leaving after challenging a lecturer to a fistfight when the lecturer questioned Service’s ability despite his top grades. Bored, he departed for Canada. His family bought him a Buffalo Bill type outfit from an auction for the trip; not entirely practical but thoughtful! Once in Canada, Service traveled all the way across the country to Vancouver Island and ironically found himself working for the Canadian Bank of Commerce. The job allowed him to live his dreams of frontier life but without the hardships. It was in 1906 that he became a famous and well-paid poet with Songs of a Sourdough. Later, Service would write The Trail of Ninety-Eight, A Northland Romance, which would be produced as a movie in 1928 by MGM. He continued to write his whole life, penning Rhymes of a Red Cross Man (1912), Poisoned Paradise (1922), Why Not Grow Young? (1928) and Lyrics of a Lowbrow (1951). He died at his villa in France in 1958, the famous scribe of a frontier life that he profited enormously in describing but whose privations he avoided.

Hardbound with Dust Jacket Dodd, Mead Co. Reprint of the 1916 Edition - THE SPELL OF THE YUKON and Other Verses. One of the earliest and most popular of Service's single volumes, containing THE SHOOTING OF DAN MC GREW, THE CREMATION OF SAM MC GEE, MY MADONNA and other fa¬vorites. CONTENTS - THE LAND GOD FORGOT THE SPELL OF THE YUKON THE HEART OF THE SOURDOUGH. THE THREE VOICES THE LAW OF THE YUKON THE PARSON'S SON THE CALL OF THE WILD THE LONE TRAIL THE PINES THE LURE OF LITTLE VOICES THE SONG OF THE WAGE-SLAVE GRIN THE SHOOTING OF DAN McGREW THE CREMATION OF SAM McGEE MY MADONNA UNFORGOTTEN THE RECKONING QUATRAINS THE MEN THAT DON'T FIT IN MUSIC IN THE BUSH THE RHYME OF THE REMITTANCE MAN THE LOW-DOWN WHITE THE LITTLE OLD LOG CABIN THE YOUNGER SON THE MARCH OF THE DEAD FIGHTING MAC THE WOMAN AND THE ANGEL THE RHYME OF THE RESTLESS ONES NEW YEAR'S EVE COMFORT THE HARPY PREMONITION THE TRAMPS L ENVOI

Rhymes of a Rolling Stone is a classic collection of Canadian poems by Robert W. Service. I sing no idle songs of dalliance days, No dreams Elysian inspire my rhyming; I have no Celia to enchant my lays, No pipes of Pan have set my heart to chiming. Robert William Service (January 16, 1874 – September 11, 1958) was a British-Canadian poet and writer who has often been called "the Bard of the Yukon". He is best known for his poems "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee", from his first book, Songs of a Sourdough (1907; also published as The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses). His vivid descriptions of the Yukon and its people made it seem that he was a veteran of the Klondike Gold Rush, instead of the late-arriving bank clerk he actually was. Although his work remains popular, Service's poems were initially received as being crudely comical works. Service was born in Preston, Lancashire, England, the third of ten children. His father, also Robert Service, was a banker from Kilwinning, Scotland, who had been transferred to England. When he was five, Service was sent to live in Kilwinning with his three maiden aunts and his paternal grandfather, the town's postmaster. There he is said to have composed his first verse, a grace, on his sixth birthday: Commemorative Plaque in Preston, England At nine, Service re-joined his parents who had moved to Glasgow. He attended Glasgow's Hillhead High School. After leaving school, Service joined the Commercial Bank of Scotland which would later become the Royal Bank of Scotland. He was writing at this time and reportedly already "selling his verses".[citation needed] He was also reading poetry: Browning, Keats, Tennyson, and Thackeray. When he was 21, Service travelled to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, with his Buffalo Bill outfit and dreams of becoming a cowboy. He drifted around western North America, "wandering from California to British Columbia," taking and quitting a series of jobs: "Starving in Mexico, residing in a California bordello, farming on Vancouver Island and pursuing unrequited love in Vancouver." This sometimes required him to leech off his parents' Scottish neighbours and friends who had previously emigrated to Canada. In 1899, Service was a store clerk in Cowichan Bay, British Columbia. He mentioned to a customer (Charles H. Gibbons, editor of the Victoria Daily Colonist) that he wrote verses, with the result that six poems by "R.S." on the Boer Wars had appeared in the Colonist by July 1900[9] – including "The March of the Dead" that would later appear in his first book. (Service's brother, Alick, was a prisoner of the Boers at the time. He had been captured on November 15, 1899, alongside Winston Churchill.) The Colonist also published Service's "Music in the Bush" on September 18, 1901, and "The Little Old Log Cabin" on March 16, 1902. In her 2006 biography, Under the Spell of the Yukon, Enid Mallory revealed that Service had fallen in love during this period. He was working as a "farm labourer and store clerk when he first met Constance MacLean at a dance in Duncan B.C., where she was visiting her uncle." MacLean lived in Vancouver, on the mainland, so he courted her by mail. Though he was smitten, "MacLean was looking for a man of education and means to support her" so was not that interested. To please her, he took courses at McGill University's Victoria College, but failed. In 1903, down on his luck, Service was hired by a Canadian Bank of Commerce branch in Victoria, British Columbia, using his Commercial Bank letter of reference. The bank "watched him, gave him a raise, and sent him to Kamloops in the middle of British Columbia. In Victoria he lived over the bank with a hired piano, and dressed for dinner. In Kamloops, horse country, he played polo. In the fall of 1904, the bank sent him to their Whitehorse branch in Yukon. With the expense money he bought himself a raccoon coat."

Robert William Service (January 16, 1874 – September 11, 1958) was a British-Canadian poet and writer who has often been called "the Bard of the Yukon". He is best known for his poems "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee", from his first book, Songs of a Sourdough (1907; also published as The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses). His vivid descriptions of the Yukon and its people made it seem that he was a veteran of the Klondike gold rush, instead of the late-arriving bank clerk he actually was. "These humorous tales in verse were considered doggerel by the literary set, yet remain extremely popular to this day."

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.