Educated in Glasgow, Service moved to British Columbia in 1895 and took a job with the Canadian Bank of Commerce. Posted to the Yukon branch of the bank, he became enamored with the beauty and excitement of the wilderness and began writing poetry. In 1907, he published the highly successful The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses. He traveled to France in 1909 and during the Balkan Wars of 1912-13, worked as a correspondent for the Toronto Star. During the First World War, he was an ambulance driver for the Red Cross, while continuing as a correspondent. He married Germaine Bougeoin in 1912 and, apart from returning to America to sit out World War II, his home remained in France until his death. His other works include Songs of a Sourdough (1907), Ballads of a Cheechako (1909), The Trail of '98 (1910), Rhymes of a Rolling Stone (1912), The Pretender (1914), Rhymes of a Red Cross Man (1916), Master of the Microbe (1926), The House of Fear (1927), Bar Room Ballads (1940), Ploughman of the Moon (1945), Harper of Heaven (1948), Rhymes of a Roughneck (1951) and Carols of a Codger (1954). |
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