Fun Facts Friday: Robert W. Service

Man of la BookJanuary 16, 2026Post a Comment

Robert W. Service (16 January, 1874 – 11 September, 1958) was a Canadian poet inspired by the stories of the Klondike Gold Rush.

Books by, or about, Robert W. Serv ice*

Fun Facts about Robert W. Service:

Robert William Service was born in the city of Preston, which is located on the north bank of the River Ribble in Lancashire, England. His father, also Robert Service, was a Scottish banker.
By the time he was five years old, the young man was living in Kilwinning, Scotland, his father’s hometown. He lived with his three aunts and grandfather, and it was said that he composed his first work, a short prayer of grace, when he was six years old.
At nine, Robert Service moved in with his parents in Glasgow, Scotland. This is where he finished school and embarked on his banking career. At this time, he was already making extra money by selling his poetry.
Robert W. Service dreamed of becoming a cowboy. At the age of 21 he packed up his Buffalo Bill outfit and set out to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. He worked, and quitted, several jobs, starved in Mexico, lived in a California brothel, and even tried farming in Vancouver. When needed, exploit his parents’ friends who moved to Canada.
On a faitful day in 1899, while working as a store clerk he told a customer that he wrote poems. That customer happened to be Charles H. Gibbons, editor of the Victoria Daily Colonist, asked him to submit some samples. He submitted six poems about the Boer Wa r s which were published.
The bank he worked for sent Mr. Service to the capital of Yukon, Whitehorse in 1904. There he met the editor of the Whitehorse Star, E. J. White, who suggested he’ll write poem that’s more “down to earth”. On a random Saturday night, walking by a saloon, the phrase “A bunch of the boys were whooping it up” came to his mind. The next morning he wrote The Shooting of Dan McGrew.
Once he had enough poems for a book, he sent them to his father, now in Toronto, asking him to find a publisher. He intended to give the books as Christmas gifts. The publisher and its employees loved the ballads so much the sent him his money back and offered him 10% royalties – they already sold 1,700 copies just based on advanced proofs. The book, Songs of a Sourdough, published in the USA as The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses, went through seven printings before it was officially released.
Robert W. Service was nicknamed “The Bard of the Yukon” and “The Canadian Kipling”. Critics didn’t appreciate him because he wrote fast, and was too popular for their gingerly taste. They compared him to Rudyard Kipling, which, to me at least, doesn’t seem that bad. Mr. service clarified to his critics that he writes “verse, not poetry”.
Mr. Service settled down in Paris, married and had two girls. He wrote verse, novels, worked as an artist and journlist. He was too old to enlist in World War II, and found himself in California during World War II visitng camps to recite his poems, inspiring the troops. He was even asked to play himself in the 1943 motion picture The Spoilers with John Wayne and Marlene Dietrich.
Before his death, Mr. Service’s wife and daughter visited Whitehorse, the poet could not bring himself to visit the rundown town, preferring to remember it as the vibrant town he loved.