Rhymes of a Red Cross Man, by Robert W. Service (soft cover, leather?, 1916, $5)
(Written on the first page in pencil is the following: "Heavenly Rest, 46th Street and 5th Ave, 11 AM, Father Huntington to preach.) (Wow, if that doesn't make your hair stand up!)
Has anyone ever heard of Robert Service? Certainly not me. I picked this book because of the "Red Cross Man" in the title. It turns out that Service was actually famous. His Songs of a Sourdough alone sold over 3 million copies.
Service was hired by a bank to go to the Yukon territory ten years after the gold rush. He lived there, listening to the stories of the miners, and writing verse. His poetry earned him the name "Bard of the Yukon". His sod home still exists as a tourist stop.
He was 41 when WWI started, so he tried to enlist, but was refused due to varicose veins, but also maybe because he was 41? Instead he became an ambulance driver and stretcher bearer with the Ambulance Corps of the Red Cross. Rhymes are his poems from that awful time. After the war, he traveled around Europe, till the beginning of WWII, when he fled to Canada. The Nazis were searching for him, as they didn't appreciate his humorous verses about Hitler. (Neither did Stalin like the verses Service wrote about him!) He would continue to write until his death in 1958. Look for this book in the poetry section, avail. 2/1.
