Whatever you think of his verse, his is a remarkable story of dedication and success.
Robert Service's Yukon Gold
On this day in 1874, Robert Service -- the Kipling of Canada" -- was born in Preston, England. When he was twenty-one, Service quit his bank job in Glasgow and hit out for Canada, serious enough about fulfilling his dream of becoming a cowboy that he brought his Buffalo Bill outfit along with him. On his winter walks Service composed and then tossed in a drawer "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee," the two poems which would make him famous and rich. Enough others went into the drawer over the next months that, when cleaning it, he decided that he had enough to publish. The book was at his own expense, and only as many copies as his $100 Christmas bonus might buy
The publisher of Service's private edition was so taken with the stuff that he returned Service's money, told him that he had sold 1700 copies of the book already -- from the galley proofs, and only in his city -- and offered a contract.
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