Funny Friday - Robert W. Service

Robert W. Service (1874-1958)  was born in England, and emigrated to Canada in 1894.

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).

Artist: Ted Harrison

Narrator:  Max Ferguson