Service

[REALMACTAVISH]

CAN ANYONE OUT THERE ILLUMINATE A WEE DARK AREA FOR ME?
ROBERT SERVICE WROTE THE POEM 'MACTAVISH' ABOUT HIS PUBLISHER. DOES ANYONE ON THAT SIDE OF THE POND HAVE ANY IDEA WHO PUBLISHER WAS? DOES FIRM STILL EXIST??

[Graeme]

I'd never heard of him and had to look him up.
Here's the poem you mention - http://www.mochinet.com/poets/service/inde...un-Lover&Poem=3 (http://www.mochinet.com/poets/service/index.cgi?ListTitles=Songs%20of%20a%20Sun-Lover&Poem=3)

And here's his website - http://www.robertwservice.com/

He's an interesting man.

[cathy]

I found the poem, currently you can find his collection on the internet at
http://www.poemhunter.com/i/ebooks/pdf/rob...vice_2004_9.pdf (http://www.poemhunter.com/i/ebooks/pdf/robert_service_2004_9.pdf)


This publisher is poemhunter.com

HE LIVED FROM 1874 TO 1958

Also recently published is
The Best of Robert Service/Illustrated Edition
By Robert W. Service; Publisher: Running Press Book Publishers;
Release Date: July, 1990; ISBN: 0894718134
Edition: Hardcover; List Price: $19.95; Amazon Price:

What do you know about this poet?



So he wrote that about his publisher??? This was a rather nice little verse. What interest do you have in him, REAL MACTAVISH?

[Truth Seeker]

My favorite Robert Service poem or ballad was always "The Shooting of Dan McGrew."

An old friend of ours, gone now nearly 10 years, who used to do 18th century re-enacting with us all over the mid-west used to recite it in the evening around the campfire. He was also of Scottish descent, and a West Virginian by birth. He could hold an audience absolutely still when he recited this. And he loved it - a born showman!

T.S.

[REALMACTAVISH]

THATS A NICE MEMORY T S WISH I COULD HAVE SEEN HIM. MY INTEREST CATHY IS ..WELL ALL THINGS MACTAVISH.....BUT DO LIKE THE POEM!

[cathy]

I am very glad you brought the man up REALMACTAVISH, as I had never heard of him. Us bean counters (as they call accountants in the states), have been known to have little imagination! ;)

Dull and boring, that be me! But truthfully yes, I will enjoy reading his work!
Cathy

[REALMACTAVISH]

you are anything but dull and boring fast cat 1
whilst on poetic themes i wonder if anyone over there can tell me from which work ogden nash wrote' no mactavish was ever lavish' and why?

[Truth Seeker]

you are anything but dull and boring fast cat 1
whilst on poetic themes i wonder if anyone over there can tell me from which work ogden nash wrote' no mactavish was ever lavish' and why?
[/b]


Ogden Nash?

T.S.

[REALMACTAVISH]

yes ; the poet ogden nash hes insulted us and dont know the poem or reasons. can you help t s

[cathy]

well REALMACTAVISH...............I see many references to the poem, but can not find a copy of it. From what work did he write it??
Cathy

FastCat1


Did he insult us???? I hope not, Scots are said to be frugle, McTavish rhymed with lavish...............

[REALMACTAVISH]

I CANT FIND POEM EIOTHER AT THIS SIDE...... MY OWN FAMILY WOULD FEED A STARVING STRANGER AND GO WITHOUT THENMSELVES I THINK ITS A SLUR AT LEAST.

[cathy]

If anyone can find it, I bet TRUTHSEEKER can.............


Come one TRUTHSEEKER, help us out on this one!
Cathy

[Truth Seeker]

If anyone can find it, I bet TRUTHSEEKER can.............


Come one TRUTHSEEKER, help us out on this one!
Cathy
[/b]


Well, I can but try. I did recognize the quote, but will have to put my researcher's hat on to try to find it.

Gone until Monday nightbut I'll work on it next week!

Another one of his I like is "Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker!" or his poem about fleas (and this IS the entire poem) "Adam had'em"

T.S.

[Truth Seeker]

"Hard Lines", Ogden Nash?s first book?published by Simon and S chuster in  1931

The phrase was contained in the works of this book, but I've been unable to locate WHICH work. This is really odd - that you can't search and find it. Hard Lines was part of a "Genealogical Reflection" collection. I don't if/when any others of the collection emerged. :(

Priscilla Galloway, Canadian writer, took good-natured umbrage at the quote ....?No MacTavish/ Was ever lavish? maligns my Celtic ancestry; and his ?Biological Reflection? ?The turtle lives ?tween armored decks/ Which [effectively?] conceal its sex./ I often wonder how the turtle/ In such a fix can be so fertile? probably maligns turtles, but both pithy rhymes amuse me still.

I don't think I'll find any more information without obtaining/reading the book. There were 7 printings in 1931, sold out.

By the way, what's the name of your new wine Cathy? :)

[cathy]

Why, my wonderful friends from the DHA gave me a bottle of Chardonay............called Lavish McTavish. It is on my fireplace mantel!

Cathy

[REALMACTAVISH]

YOU ARE LUCKY. I HAVE A WEEKNESS FOR WINE

[cathy]

ah yes, don't we all!

[rhona]

Please do tell where we can all purchase this lavish titled wine ------coz my old man would LOVE it!
Do I need to dig my creativity out the cellar?

[Beaupre]

[b]HELLO, MON AMIES :

No MacTavish was ever lavish was actually a tribute by Ogden Nash to a good and beloved friend of his, Richard Caton MacTavish, shortly after Caton's death.

Nash, Caton, H.L. Mencken and several other Baltimore Wits gathered once a week to play poker and exchange "intellectual properties" as they called their little soirees.

Mencken and my uncle, Caton, both started careers as newspaper journalist on t he same day at a newspaper here in Baltimore. They all, but Caton, had a very ascerbic type of wit and especially humour and this was their "male way of bonding" - sending these type of "accolades" to each other.

Caton was the one member of the group who did not engage in these verbal sayings, and they all thought he was, indeed, the aristocratic gentleman of the decade. He came froma most prominent family and was raised as only aristocrats in the "400" could be.

Caton watched his pennies most carefully - thus the tribute!

Anything else? (as my friend Dieter Ziezwietz says)

Beaupre

[REALMACTAVISH]

THANK YOU FOR THAT BEAUPRE