The Shooting of Dan McGrew [Paperback]

Robert W Service (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0888392249 | ISBN-13: 978-0888392244 | Publication Date: September 1995

After being transferred to Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory, Service was smitten by the gold fever of the great Klondike gold rush. Only Service mined words, not gold, and within five years was famous as the poet who had captured the essence of the fever, the adventure, the men, and the women. The magic of the words is beautifully captured by award-winning artist Mariken Van Nimwegen.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The poem about the shooting of the fictitious Dan McGrew was written soon after the gold rush in Dawson City was over; it is an unrelenting story of the greed, jealousy, loneliness and betrayal that were characteristic of the Gold Rush era, and how Dan McGrew became the hated target of a half-crazed miner. While the action of the poem is intense and demanding, the painterly illustrations by Harrison are overwhelmingly powerful; they seem to take on a life of their own, drawing readers' attentions away from the text and toward the surrealistic interpretation of events. With ice-cold blues and violets, accented by vibrant reds and yellows, Harrison creates a pulsating world of hate and destruction; it's a fascinating interpretation of a well-known poem about the frustrations and splendors of the Canadian Gold Rush. Ages 8-up.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6 Up Ballads have strong rhythms, and the texts of such epic tales as Dan McGrew (and Harrison's The Cremation of Sam McGee Greenwillow, 1987) are humane in their exposition of our heroic qualities and artful in the choice and composition of language. This poem is an anecdote from the days of the gold camps in Alaska. Service, writing in 1907, played up the melodrama using all of the props of a sort of Last Chance Saloon for his stage. Harrison employs opaque paints in relatively untextured areas frequently outlined thickly with contrasting color lines. There's a hint of Lautrec's posters at times. Saloon interiors provide sufficient details to draw readers in. And the impressionistic rainbow-like swirls of blues, purples, and yellows carry them through the boozy dream-cum-nightmares of a miner's psyche as he finds a return to ``civilization'' more than he can handle. The design in uncluttered: the pristine glossy white left-hand pages house the verses set in a large serifed typeface, and opposite are the black-framed pictures. Words and pictures make a strong pair. A plausible fantasy, attractive in its trim narrative setting. Kenneth Marantz, Art Education Department, Ohio State University, Columbus
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Hancock House (September 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0888392249
• ISBN-13: 978-0888392244
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,459,194 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Art work in this book is phenomenal!, March 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Shooting of Dan McGrew (Paperback)

The poem is great to begin with, but coupled with the pictures, "formidable!" Each page could be clipped out and framed on its own merits.

5.0 out of 5 stars Bang, bang, you got me!, September 25, 2011

By 

Dr. John T. Webb (Franklin, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Shooting of Dan McGrew, A Novel Based on the Famous Poem of Robert Service (Kindle Edition)

This pom and "The cremation of Sam McGee" have been my greatest favorites since i was old enough to understand spoken words, and to accurately repeat words spoken to me. In my fifth and sixth grade classes, I sometimes entertained classmates by narrating these two poems. And this was before I found out that "RED-BLOODED MALES DO NOT LEARN OR RECITE POETRY!" Not true, by the bye!!! This has been a perennial favorite of my first and second grade students when I was an Elementary school teacher. It was also favored by my recruits when I was a U.S. Army Drill Sergeant! And NOT because I was their Drill Sergeant.)

Robert Service's poetry truly reflects the atmosphere of the Yukon.

5.0 out of 5 stars Canadian Classic, April 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Shooting of Dan McGrew (Hardcover)

With Ted Harrison's illustrations, this classic poem comes alive. Whether its read as a children's introduction to poetry or just for fun, this is a book to own. "Were you ever out in the Great Alone?" Probably not -but this book can get you close.