Buckwheat Donahue on The Cremation of Sam McGee

Buckwheat Donahue’s Introduction to The Cremation of Sam McGee

"This is the piece that catapulted Robert Service onto the international stage—at least in the English-speaking world. It was first published in 1906 and then mass-produced in 1907 as part of his first book of poetry, The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses."

"It’s hard to imagine today, but over a hundred years ago, that book outsold the Bible. That’s the kind of impact Robert Service had on his generation—and the one that followed. Because of this poem, he became one of the ten most recognizable men on the planet. Everybody knew his name. Everybody knew his face. They knew he grew up in Scotland, they knew he lived in the Yukon, and by the time his last works were being published, they knew he was living in France."

"But this was the one that started it all. And believe it or not, Sam McGee was a real person. In 1937, just a few years after the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation got its start, they actually tracked him down and interviewed him. He was living in Manitoba."

"Of course, he never froze to death on the trail. Robert Service needed a name that rhymed with Tennessee, so he pulled out the bank ledgers from his job in Whitehorse, ran his finger down the page, and found McGee. That’s it. That’s how Sam McGee became the most famous man from Tennessee—all because his name happened to fit the rhyme."