C.J. Dennis was born on this day in 1876, in Auburn, South Australia. Considered by many (well, by me at least) to be one of the greatest of Australia's poets, he is probably the best-selling of any of them.
From the time of its publication in 1915, Dennis's The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke had sold in excess of 66,000 copies within 18 months of initial printing. It has since gone on to sell well over the 100,000 mark. While the Bloke was the best known of all Dennis's works, he also wrote such works as The Moods of Ginger Mick, Doreen and Rose of Spadgers in the same sequence, as well as The Glugs of Gosh, Digger Smith and Jim of the Hills. In the latter part of his life, Dennis became the resident poet for The Herald newspaper in Melbourne, writing over 3,000 pieces of poetry and prose for the paper over a near twenty year period. Dennis died in Melbourne on 22 June 1938.
