Robert William Service
16 January 1874 - 11 September 1958
Robert William Service was a British-Canadian poet, writer, and journalist born in Lancashire, England in 1874. He is best known for his narrative poems and ballads, such as "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee," which are set in the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 19th century. He spent much of his life in Canada, where he worked as a bank clerk and traveled extensively. He began publishing poetry in the early 1900s and quickly became popular for his humorous and lyrical writing style. Service continued to write and publish poems and prose throughout his life, and is considered one of the great poets of the 20th century. He died in 1958 in Lancashire, England.