Songs of a Sourdough
Overview
Robert W. Service
Robert William Service was a poet and writer who has often been called "the Bard of the Yukon".Service 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...
. In the United States, the book was published under the title The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses.
The book is well known for its verse about the Klondike Gold Rush
Klondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush, also called the Yukon Gold Rush, the Alaska Gold Rush and the Last Great Gold Rush, was an attempt by an estimated 100,000 people to travel to the Klondike region the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1897 and 1899 in the hope of successfully prospecting for gold...
in the Yukon
Yukon
Yukon is the westernmost and smallest of Canada's three federal territories. It was named after the Yukon River. The word Yukon means "Great River" in Gwich’in....
a decade earlier, particularly the long, humorous ballads, "The Shooting of Dan McGrew
The Shooting of Dan McGrew
"The Shooting of Dan McGrew" is a narrative poem by Robert W. Service, first published in The Songs of a Sourdough in 1907 in Canada.The tale takes place in a Yukon saloon during the Yukon Gold Rush of the late 1890s...
" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee
The Cremation of Sam McGee
"The Cremation of Sam McGee" is among the most famous of Robert W. Service's poems. It was published in 1907 in The Songs of a Sourdough...
."
Songs of a Sourdough has sold more than three million copies, making it the most commercially successful book of poetry of the 20th century.
Service, an employee of the Canadian Imperial Bank, was posted to Whitehorse, Yukon
Whitehorse, Yukon
Whitehorse is Yukon's capital and largest city . It was incorporated in 1950 and is located at kilometre 1476 on the Alaska Highway in southern Yukon. Whitehorse's downtown and Riverdale areas occupy both shores of the Yukon River, which originates in British Columbia and meets the Bering Sea in...
, in 1904.
