There are strange things done in the midnight sun.....

Robert William Service was born on this day in 1874. He was born in Preston, Lancashire, England and after spending his childhood in Scotland, came to Canada in 1894. He worked for the Canadian Bank of Commerce in the Yukon for eight years.

He was a newspaper correspondent for the Toronto Star during the Balkin Wars of 1912-13 and served as an ambulance driver and correspondent during World War I.

From 1914 on he lived in Europe, returning to Canada during WWII, to live in Hollywood and Vancouver, then again living in Brittany and on the French Riviera. He died in Lancieux, France in 1958.

Here's a copy of the original Songs of a Sourdough, first printed in 1907, which contains such titles as "The Shooting of Dan McGrew", "The Cremation of Sam McGee", "The Call of the Wild" and "The Spell of the Yukon".

You can actually turn the pages in the book which is pretty neat. Here's "The Cremation of Sam McGee" as it appeared in 1907.