Robert William Service (1874-1958) was a Canadian poet and writer known as the "Bard of the Klondike". He was born in England to Scottish parents, but in 1894 he emigrated to Canada, where he worked in a bank for eight years. He gained real fame for his collections of ballads, written in the best traditions of Rudyard Kipling, full of the spirit of northern adventures, the struggle with nature and the search for gold.
During the First World War, Service worked as a war correspondent for the Toronto Star in France, where he later settled and married a French woman. During the Second World War, he returned to Canada, lived in Hollywood for a while and even starred with Marlene Dietrich in the film The Prospectors (1942). After the war, he settled again in France, where he spent the rest of his life.
His creative legacy includes about 50 poetry collections, two autobiographical books and six novels. Many of his ballads have become part of the golden fund of English-language poetry.
This volume presents his novel "The Polar Argonauts", where the fate of the young Scotsman Etole becomes a metaphor for the eternal desire for adventure and freedom.
Having left his native country, he sets off for the New World, hoping to find a better life. However, instead of luck, hunger and need await him, and in order to survive, he is forced to take on hard work digging a tunnel. But the thirst for adventure does not give him peace: inspired by the spirit of the gold rush, Etole, together with other desperate seekers, sets off for the Great White Country - Klondike, a land of cold, trials and hopes.
This novel is a story of courage, adventure and the struggle for a dream, told by the author, who himself knew both the romance of the Klondike and the harsh everyday life of North America.
