The Cremation of Sam Mcgee

A NOVEL BASED on the poetry and arctic ballads of Robert W. Service, including The Cremation of Sam McGee and The Shooting of Dan McGrew.

A RICHLY TOLD FABLE of love, lies and redemption that isn't too far from the truth.

Wild West Magazine says: "Del Leonard Jones has crafted a marvelous book that is part historical fiction and part historical fable. His novel is largely based on two poems by Robert W. Service--"The Cremation of Sam McGee" and "The Shooting of Dan...
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A NOVEL BASED on the poetry and arctic ballads of Robert W. Service, including The Cremation of Sam McGee and The Shooting of Dan McGrew.

A RICHLY TOLD FABLE of love, lies and redemption that isn't too far from the truth.

Wild West Magazine says: "Del Leonard Jones has crafted a marvelous book that is part historical fiction and part historical fable. His novel is largely based on two poems by Robert W. Service--"The Cremation of Sam McGee" and "The Shooting of Dan McGrew." The exciting second half of the book takes place during the Klondike Gold Rush, and the first is in Cuba during the 1898 Spanish-American War. The main character, Jayson Kelley, is a celebrated correspondent working for newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst. Down Havana way he meets Sam McGee and his beautiful, mysterious sister Luisa. There is a lot here about Yellow Journalism and honesty, whether on paper or not, and thus a lot that relates to today's "fake news" preoccupation. Robert W. Service (1874-1958) has been called the "Bard of the Yukon." His Sam McGee poem includes these memorable (and memorized by some) lines: "The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, /But the queerest they ever did see/ Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge/I cremated Sam McGee." Reading the full poem first and then the novel and then the poem again is a worthwhile endeavor."