Robert William Service, poet, novelist (b at Preston, Eng 16 Jan 1874; d at Lancieux, France 11 Sept 1958). Educated in Scotland, Service worked in a bank after he left school. In 1894 he immigrated to Canada, where, after wandering from California to British Columbia, he joined the Canadian Bank of Commerce. He was stationed throughout British Columbia and eventually at Whitehorse and Dawson City. In 1907 he published his first collection of poems, Songs of a Sourdough; an immediate success, it was followed by Ballads of a Cheechako (1909) and Rhymes of a Rolling Stone (1912). Poems such as "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" assured Service of lasting fame and gave rise to his nicknames: "the Canadian Kipling" and "the Poet of the Yukon." During WWI he was an ambulance driver, and after the war he travelled throughout Europe but lived mostly in France. His later works include Ballads of a Bohemian (1921), Rhymes of a Roughneck (1950) and his autobiographical works: Ploughman of the Moon (1945) and Harper of Heaven (1948).
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- MLA 8TH EDITION
- Evans, David. "Robert Service". The Canadian Encyclopedia, 04 March 2015, Historica Canada. www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/robert-william-service. Accessed 31 October 2024.
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- APA 6TH EDITION
- Evans, D. (2015). Robert Service. In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/robert-william-service
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- CHICAGO 17TH EDITION
- Evans, David. "Robert Service." The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Article published February 18, 2009; Last Edited March 04, 2015.
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- TURABIAN 8TH EDITION
- The Canadian Encyclopedia, s.v. "Robert Service," by David Evans, Accessed October 31, 2024, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/robert-william-service
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Robert Service
Article by David Evans
Published Online February 18, 2009
Last Edited March 4, 2015