Clarence Michael James Dennis (1876 - 1938)

Born 7 Sep 1876 in Auburn, South Australia (Australia)

Husband of Olivia Harriet (Herron) Dennis — married 28 Jun 1917 in Victoria, Australia

Died 22 Jun 1938 at age 61 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

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Biography

C J Dennis is Notable.

Clarence Michael James Dennis was born on 7th September 1876 at Auburn, South Australia, Australia. He was the eldest of four sons of James Dennis and Kate Tobin.^[1] The family were Roman Catholic. James took his family in 1883 to Gladstone, South Australia, where he ran the Gladstone Hotel. In 1890 they moved again, this time to Laura where James became the publican of the Beetaloo Reservoir Hotel. Clarence completed his formal education at Christian Brothers' College, Adelaide, South Australia.^[2][3]

Better known as C J Dennis, he is considered one of Australia's most famous three poets.^[4] His first poem was published when he was nineteen years of age and working as a solicitor's clerk. He joined the literary staff of The Critic in 1897 until 1905, when he was editor; having a short spell away doing odd jobs around Broken Hill. In 1906 he co-founded The Gadfly as a literary magazine, however left it by 1908. Four sections of The Sentimental Bloke, first published in the Bulletin in 1908, won a special prize in a national song competition; in 1915 it was reprinted with alterations, being dedicated to the diggers of the Australian Imperial Force at Gallipoli (although applying, Clarrie was not accepted for military service). He worked in Sydney in 1914 on the Australian Worker and the Call. Following the declaration of war in August 1914, he was employed at the Navy Office and then became secretary to the Federal attorney-general, Senator E J Russell. From 1922 he served as staff poet on the Melbourne Herald.^[2]

Clarrie married Olive Herron on 28th June 1917 at Victoria.^[5] They made their home at Arden, the house that Dennis had built at Toolangi in the hills 72 kilometres (45 miles) north-east of Melbourne. The Singing Garden (1935) was written around Arden, and is regarded as the poet at his serious best (although destroyed by fire in 1965, Arden is commemorated by cairns and plaques in the still-existing garden). Olive was the author under the pseudonym 'Margaret Herron' of My Dear (1928), Seed and Stubble (1936) and the biographical Down the Years (1953); outliving her husband by thirty years.^[2]

Clarrie passed away, aged 61 years, on 22nd June 1938 at Melbourne, Victoria, and is buried at Box Hill Cemetery.^[6][7] The Prime Minister of Australia, Joseph Lyons, reflected that C J Dennis was destined to be remembered as the "Australian Robert Burns".^[2]