The Cremation of Sam McGee

The Cremation of Sam McGee, ballad by Robert Service, published in Canada in 1907 in Songs of a Sourdough (U.S. title, The Spell of the Yukon, and Other Verses). A popular success upon publication, this exaggerated folktale about a pair of Yukon gold miners was reprinted 15 times in its first year. In the ballad, set in the icy wilds of northwestern Canada, the title character dies after asking the narrator to cremate his body...