Robert William Service was born 16 January 1874 in Preston, England, but also lived in Scotland before emigrating to Canada in 1894. Service went to the Yukon Territory in 1904 as a bank clerk, and became famous for his poems about this region, which are mostly in his first two books of poetry. He wrote quite a bit of prose as well, and worked as a reporter for some time, but those writings are not nearly as well known as his poems. He travelled around the world quite a bit, and narrowly escaped from France at the beginning of the Second World War, during which time he lived in Hollywood, California. He died 11 September 1958 in France.

Incidentally, he played himself in a movie called "The Spoilers", starring John Wayne and Marlene Dietrich.