Robert W. Service's book of poetry, Ballads of a Cheechako, was first released in 1909. These poems are a fascinating collection of poetic tales of northern gold rush life that provide amazing insights into the lives and perspectives of the men and women of the region. They are a definite must-read for fans of Service's work and will appeal to any poetry lovers. To The Man of the High North, Men of the High North, The Ballad of the Northern Lights, The Ballad of the Black Fox Skin, The Ballad of Pious Pete, The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill, The Ballad of One-Eyed Mike, and many other poems are included in this collection. British-Canadian poet and author Robert William Service are best known for his poems "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee." The Ballads of a Cheechako has beautiful poetry that provides amazing conclusions.
Robert William Service, known as "the Bard of the Yukon," was a British-Canadian poet and author who lived from January 16, 1874, to September 11, 1958. William was given as a middle name in memory of a wealthy uncle. The middle name was deleted by Service after his uncle failed to provide provisions for him in his will. He was a bank clerk by trade, having been born in Lancashire of Scottish origin, but he also spent a lot of time traveling, frequently in extreme poverty, across the west of the United States and Canada. When his bank sent him to the Yukon, he was moved by stories of the Klondike Gold Rush and inspired to write two poems, "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee," which displayed a remarkable level of authenticity for a writer without any prior experience with gold mining and quickly gained popularity. Encouraged by this, he rapidly produced further songs on the same subject, which were later collected in Songs of a Sourdough (known in the United States as The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses) and sold in large quantities. When his subsequent collection Ballads of a Cheechako achieved the same level of success, Service was able to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle based in Paris and the French Riviera while traveling frequently.
