Selected Works of C J Dennis cover

Selected Works of C J Dennis

C. J. Dennis

Selected and edited by Barry Watts

Dust Jacket Synopsis & Introduction

C. J. Dennis (1876–1938) remains one of Australia’s most distinctive literary voices, renowned for his wit, humour, and deep understanding of everyday Australian life.

Barry Watts’ selection brings together a representative range of Dennis’s poetry, from his celebrated comic dialect verse to his more reflective and lyrical works.

The collection captures Dennis’s ability to portray character, place, and mood, revealing both the humour and humanity that made his writing so widely admired.

First Paragraph from the Introduction:

The Australian poet C. J. Dennis was at times very vague about his early background. Even his friend and biographer, Alec Chisholm, admitted to being confused when he tried to establish the truth about Dennis's childhood and youth. Chisholm's book, C. J. Dennis - His Remarkable Career, first published in 1946, notes the gaps in Dennis's life story which occur primarily in his teenage years and in his early twenties. Dennis was vague about these periods himself, even with his friends. When he was in his mid-thirties he told his mentor and friend, Robert Croll, a man of letters and author of several books, that he did not know the year of his birth. Dennis's biographical note which he gave to Croll in 1913 says, "Born in Auburn, SA, some time in late seventies - don't know exact year, say '77 or '78 . . . " He was actually born in 1876, on 7 September, to James Dennis and his second wife Katherine, and was baptised three days later as Clarence Michael James.

As Clarence Michael grew to maturity, he styled his name differently, dropping his given middle name altogether until eventually he was known as "C. J. Dennis" or in his later years, somewhat affectionately, as "Den".

A second son, Francis Albert (known as Bert), was born into the Dennis family in 1880 and, after a gap of six years, their third and final child, Claude Leo, arrived.

The death of Kate Dennis when she was thirty-seven years old caused a major upheaval in the family. She died in Adelaide on 16 August 1890 and was buried there in the West Terrace Cemetery. At this time Clarrie was a fourteen-year-old adolescent, Bert was ten and young Claude just four and a half. Their father was himself fifty-four and now fully occupied in running the Gladstone Hotel at Gladstone and hardly keen to tend to the upbringing of his growing family. A quick solution to this situation became imperative.

Two spinster sisters of the late Kate Dennis came to the family's rescue. Mary Arm and Sarah Tobin moved into the Dennis establishment and provided the comfort and direction their three Dennis nephews needed.

The sisters brought to their task some quaint attitudes of gentility which now seem to be at odds with the hotel environment into which their charges had been born. The aunts pampered the lads and dressed them in starched suits and patent leather shoes, setting them apart from their mates by being over-protective, strict and decidedly old-fashioned.

Due to his Little Lord Fauntleroy appearance, young Clarrie became subjected to much teasing and ridicule from other young men of his age. At school Clarrie Dennis had mostly played with the girls and was considered to be effeminate.

It has since been propounded by Chisholm and others that the "tough guys" in C, J. Dennis's subsequent literary career were created as deliberate contrasts to the "lavender and lace" of his adolescent upbringing.

From the Angus and Robertson hardback edition, 1988.

Contents

From the Barry Watts selected edition.

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