Product Description

In 1986 Kids Can Press published an edition of Robert Service's "The Cremation of Sam McGee" illustrated by painter Ted Harrison, who used his signature broad brushstrokes and unconventional choice of color to bring this gritty narrative poem to life. Evoking both the spare beauty and the mournful solitude of the Yukon landscape, Harrison's paintings proved the perfect match for Service's masterpiece about a doomed prospector adrift in a harsh land. Harrison's Illustrator's Notes on each page enhanced both poem and illustrations by adding valuable historical background. Upon its original publication, many recognized the book as an innovative approach to illustrating poetry for children. For years The Cremation of Sam McGee has stood out as a publishing landmark, losing none of its appeal both as a read-aloud and as a work of art. Kids Can Press proudly publishes this deluxe hardcover twentieth anniversary edition -- complete with a spot-varnished cover, new cover art and heavy coated stock -- of a book that remains as entrancing as a night sky alive with the vibrant glow of the Northern Lights.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #737784 in Books
• Published on: 1986-08-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 32 pages

Amazon.ca
No artist has painted the cold like Ted Harrison. In The Cremation of Sam McGee, the surrealist painter and children's illustrator from the Yukon brings Robert W. Service's famous poem to life in a palette of icy blues, blistering mauves, and searing pinks. Although originally written for adults, Service's turn-of-the-century ballad of a Tennessee gold digger who will do anything to get out of the Yukon's "cursed cold" has always appealed to a youthful sense of the ridiculous. In the tradition of the tall tales of Paul Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed, The Cremation of Sam McGee tells of how the dying McGee (fearing "the icy grave that pains") exacts a promise from the narrator to cremate him after he's gone. Harrison's bold, stark paintings capture the narrator's increasing sense of desperation as he dogsleds across the dark and silent tundra in search of a suitable crematorium for his "frozen chum." Of course, the joke is that once in the boiling furnace of a derelict ship, Sam wakes up and with a "smile you could see a mile" asks his companion to "'Please close that door. / It's fine in here, / but I greatly fear you'll let in the cold and storm -- / Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, / it's the first time I've been warm."

While the design of this 1986 picture book is a little stodgy and old-fashioned, the magic of Service's knee-smacking verses, combined with Harrison's dazzling art, is timeless. As Pierre Berton writes in the introduction, it "represents a happy marriage between the most eloquent of the Yukon poets and the most brilliant of the Yukon artists." --Lisa Alward

Review
[Gorgeously illustrated ? [A wonderful new edition ... Harrison’s pictures are startling and memorable (Winnipeg Free Press )

There are strange things done in the midnight sun By the men who moil for books; The Arctic trails have their secret tales that could give you second looks, The Northern Lights have seen their sights But the wisest they ever did see Was the day in’06, complete with great pix They reissued Sam McGee. (Globe and Mail )

About the Author
Robert Service was born in England and earned a worldwide reputation as a poet of the Arctic. He died in Europe in 1958.

Ted Harrison is an internationally acclaimed artist best known for his vibrant interpretations of the Canadian North. He lives in Victoria, British Columbia.