This volume contains fifty-seven poems by the incomparable Robert Service, including: The Pines; The Spell of the Yukon; Over the Parapet; The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill; The Shooting of Dan McGrew; The Trail of Ninety-Eight; The Cremation of Sam McGee; The Ballad of Pious Pete; The Trapper's Christmas Eve; The Law of the Yukon; The March of the Dead; The Ballad of One-Eyed Mike; Bill the Bomber; The Blind and the Dead; etc.

In 1986 Kids Can Press published an edition of Robert Service's ?The Cremation of Sam McGee? illustrated by painter Ted Harrison, who used his signature broad brushstrokes and unconventional choice of color to bring this gritty narrative poem to life. Evoking both the spare beauty and the mournful solitude of the Yukon landscape, Harrison's paintings proved the perfect match for Service's masterpiece about a doomed prospector adrift in a harsh land. Harrison's Illustrator's Notes on each page enhanced both poem and illustrations by adding valuable historical background. Upon its original publication, many recognized the book as an innovative approach to illustrating poetry for children. For years The Cremation of Sam McGee has stood out as a publishing landmark, losing none of its appeal both as a read-aloud and as a work of art. Kids Can Press proudly publishes this deluxe hardcover twentieth anniversary edition --- complete with a spot-varnished cover, new cover art and heavy coated stock --- of a book that remains as entrancing as a night sky alive with the vibrant glow of the Northern Lights.

The English-born poet lived in Canada most of his life, where he penned a spirited series of poems that recapture the rough-and-tumble life of the frontier's mining camps and saloons. Includes "The Spell of the Yukon," "The Heart of the Sourdough," "While the Bannock Bakes," and "The Squaw Man."

Robert Service's time in the Yukon, at first as a transplanted bank clerk and later living off the royalties of poems like "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee," is the core of a fascinating life. Starving in Mexico, residing in a