Robert William Service (January 16, 1874 - September 11, 1958) was a British-Canadian poet and writer, often called the Bard of the Yukon . Born in Lancashire of Scottish descent, he was a bank clerk by trade, but spent long periods travelling in Western America and Canada, often in some poverty. When his bank sent him to the Yukon, he was inspired by tales of the Klondike Gold Rush, and wrote two poems The Shooting of Dan McGrew and The Cremation of Sam McGee , which showed remarkable authenticity from an author with no experience of gold-mining, and enjoyed immediate popularity. Encouraged by this, he quickly wrote more poems on the same theme, which were published as Songs of a Sourdough.