Robert Service (1874-1958) --“The Bard of the Yukon”

While we didn't bring any books-on-tape or podcasts to keep the mind engaged when driving, Dominick picked up a copy of a real book, The Best of Robert Service, which proved to be more engrossing and entertaining than even a fully-stocked iPod.

It's poetry for the everyday man or woman as well as the Northern Adventurer. Great stuff to read with a flashlight or by firelight. Robert Service is a poet well-known to people of the North. Here is his story...

Robert Service was born in England in 1874, but acquired his wit and taste for adventure during his boyhood years in the Highalands of Scotland. At 22, he left Scotland for Canada and roamed the north for the next 16 years. He left the Yukon in 1912, little dreaming he would never return. After WWI, hw married and settled in France. Over the course of his 84 years, he published 19 books of verse, the final one appearing the year before his death in 1958. (from The Best of Robert Service McGrawHill, 1940)