Alaska-Yukon Cruise Tour

Robert W. Service

Pictures at Robert Service cabin

An English born Scottish-Canadian writer of poetry and novels. His works published through 1922 are in the public domain in the USA.

Robert William Service (January 16, 1874 – September 11, 1958) was a poet and writer. He is mostly well known for his writings on the Canadian North, including the poems "The Shooting of Dan McGrew", "The Law of the Yukon", and "The Cremation of Sam McGee".

Service wrote two volumes of autobiography - Ploughman of the Moon and Harper of Heaven.

He died in Lancieux, Côtes-d'Armor, in Brittany, and is buried there in the local cemetery.

Robert Service's Cabin, Dawson City

Robert Service lived between 1909 and 1912 in a log cabin on 8th Avenue in Dawson City, Yukon. His relative prosperity allowed him the luxury of a telephone. After he left for Europe, the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire (I.O.D.E.) took care of the house until 1971, preserving it. Service eventually decided he could not return to Dawson, as it would not be as he remembered it.

In 1971, the Service cabin was taken over by Parks Canada, which maintains it, including its sod roof, as a tourist attraction. Irish-born actor Tom Byrne created The Robert Service Show which was presented in the front yard of the cabin, starting in 1976. This was very popular for summer visitors and set the standard for Robert Service recitations.

Ill health caused the elderly Mr. Byrne to discontinue the show at the cabin. The show was moved to a Front Street storefront and since 2004 has been held at the Westmark Hotel in Dawson. A local Dawson entertainer, Johnny Nunan, now recites Service's poetry (including the classic "The Cremation of Sam McGee") from a willow chair while visitors sit on benches on the front lawn. Following the presentation, visitors can view Service's home through the windows and front door. The fragility of the house, and the rarity of the artifacts, precludes any possibility of allowing visitors to walk inside the house itself.

Honors

Robert W. Service has been honored with schools named for him including Service High School in Anchorage, Alaska, Robert Service Middle School in Toronto, Ontario and Robert Service School in Dawson City, Yukon. He was also honored on a Canadian postage stamp in 1976. The Robert Service Way, a main road in Whitehorse, is named after him.

Jan. 16, 1874 - Sept. 11, 1958

The following obituary appeared in the Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph of Sept. 16, 1958: A GREAT POET died last week in Lancieux, France, at the age of 84.

He was not a poet's poet. Fancy-Dan dilettantes will dispute the description "great." He was a people's poet. To the people he was great. They understood him, and knew that any verse carrying the by-line of Robert W. Service would be a lilting thing, clear, clean and power-packed, beating out a story with a dramatic intensity that made the nerves tingle. And he was no poor, garret-type poet, either. His stuff made money hand over fist. One piece alone, The Shooting of Dan McGrew, rolled up half a million dollars for him. He lived it up well and also gave a great deal to help others.

"The only society I like," he once said, "is that which is rough and tough - and the tougher the better. That's where you get down to bedrock and meet human people." He found that kind of society in the Yukon gold rush, and he immortalized it.

It has been reported that Service wrote over 2,000 poems. Many to friends, relatives, and for special occasions. Only about 1,200 have been published. There is a large collection of his work at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow.

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