Presented in this lot is the First Edition of, "The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses" by Robert W. Service, 1907, Barse & Hopkins Pub;lishers, New York. A collection of poems telling of adventures during the Klondike gold rush by Britain's Robert W. Service (1874-1958), known as "The Bard of the Yukon", was a British-Canadian poet and writer who spent long periods traveling in the Western United States and Canada, often in 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 (re-titled The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses in the U.S.), and achieved a massive sale. When his next collection Ballads of a Cheechako proved equally successful, Service could afford to travel widely and live a leisurely life, basing himself in Paris and the French Riviera. Partly because of their popularity, and the speed with which he wrote them, his works were dismissed as doggerel by the critics, who tended to say the same of Rudyard Kipling, with whom Service was often compared. This did not worry Service, who was happy to classify his work as "verse, not poetry". This green cloth bound gold gilt stamped hardcover is in nice condition, slight scuffing exhibited to cover edges, gold gilt is clean and bright. Intact pages exhibit age tanning and very slight foxing, loose spine, soiling of center pages. Measures 5"W x 7.5"L x .5"D, weight 6oz.