Born: January 16, 1874
Died: September 11, 1958 Place of Birth: Preston, England
Major Notes:
Robert Service was a poet who brought the life of the Yukon to the world.
He came from a family of ten who lived in relatively wealthy circumstances.
The Service family eventually settled in Glasgow, Scotland, where he was educated.
Service was an avid reader and liked to make recitations to any kind of audience.
After high school, he found work in a shipping office only to turn up for work one day and the business had folded.
He then found a job in a Stobcross branch of the Commercial Bank of Scotland which left him time to write after hours.
Service sensed vice was more interesting than virtue and was able to sell poetry verses to add to his income.
Before long, Robert Service was dreaming of theatrical work and he decided to attend the University of Glasgow.
Service felt his English professor did not appreciate his writing style and he left university.
At age 21, dreaming about a cowboy life, Service left Scotland and moved to Canada travelling by rail from Montreal to Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
He lived in Victoria, BC, and spent his first few years traveling up and down the west coast.
Service is said to have learned the lessons of life as he traveled from city to city.
He eventually went to work for the Bank of Commerce in Victoria and later was stationed in White Horse, Yukon.
Service understood the difficulties of living in the north and he very much appreciated the beauty of the land.
Soon Robert Service was writing poetry about the north and sent a package of his poems to a publisher.
One of the poems Service included was to become one of his most famous, The Cremation of Sam McGee.
His book of poetry was enormously successful and he became wealthy almost overnight.
He kept his bank job and a year later was transferred to Dawson City making the trip by sleigh.
In 1909, Service left the world of banking even after being offered a promotion to manager.
During World War I, Robert Service was a war correspondent for the Toronto Star.
He continued to write poetry and novels and amassing wealth, sometimes by pretending to be poor.
Service remained a British subject all his life, but he said of Canada's north, "It seems as if I had never lived anywhere else."
Robert Service was considered the most read poet of the 20th century.
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