From the author of At The Bat: The Strikeout That Shamed America, the third greatest baseball novel of all time as ranked by Goodreads, comes The Cremation of Sam McGee, a story based on the poetry and arctic ballads of Robert W. Service, including The Cremation of Sam McGee and The Shooting of Dan McGrew.

A RICHLY TOLD FABLE of love, lies and redemption that isn’t too far from the truth.

Wild West Magazine says: Del Leonard Jones has crafted a marvelous book that is part historical fiction and part historical fable. The book’s exciting second half takes place during the Klondike Gold Rush, and the first is in Cuba during the 1898 Spanish-American War. The main character, Jayson Kelley, is a celebrated correspondent working for newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst. Down Havana way he meets Sam McGee and his beautiful, mysterious sister Luisa. There is a lot here about yellow journalism and honesty, and thus a lot that relates to today’s fake news preoccupation.

Robert W. Service (1874-1958) has been called the Bard of the Yukon. His Sam McGee poem includes these memorable (and memorized by some) lines: 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.

Reading the full poem first and then the novel and then the poem again is a worthwhile endeavor.

Readers who enjoy Robert Service poetry such as The Spell of the Yukon will enjoy this book as will readers of Alaska by James Michener and Jack London novels The Call of the Wild, White Fang, Martin Eden, The Sea Wolf, The Iron Heel and To Build a Fire.

Greatest baseball novels:
The Natural Shoeless Joe (Field of Dreams) At The Bat: The Strikeout That Shamed America (Next to be a major motion picture)