Robert Service - Born in England in 1874, Service grew up in Scotland and Canada. He held many jobs and prided himself on a life of multiple experiences and trades. During one of his many jobs, he worked for the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in Victoria, B.C. He began his career as a poet during those years, writing "The Cremation of Sam McGee" among others. In 1907 he published "Songs of a Sourdough."

   Achieving a degree of fame, Service quit his appointment at the Bank and sailed north, to Dawson City in 1909. He moved into a small cabin (which is now a historic site) and wrote many more poems which would solidify his position as "Poet Laureate of the North." In the following years he published "Ballads of a Cheechako" and a novel, "The Trail of '98."

   Not content to stay still, Service left Alaska in 1912. He landed a job as a newspaper correspondent for the Toronto Star during the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, and later became an ambulance driver and correspondent during World War 1. After the war, he moved to France and remained htere until his death in 1958.

—From "The Cremation of Sam McGee"

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
   By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
   That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
   But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
   I cremated Sam McGee.

—From "The Spell of the Yukon"

There's gold, and it's haunting and haunting;
   It's luring me on as of old;
Yet it isn't the gold that I'm wanting
   So much as just finding the gold.
It's the great, big, broad land 'way up yonder,
   It's the forests where silence has lease;
It's the beauty that thrills me with wonder,
   It's the stillness that fills me with peace.