At the age of 19 Clarence was employed as a solicitor's clerk. It was while he was working in that job, like banker's clerk Banjo Paterson before him, his first poem was published under the pen name "The Best of the Six". He went on to publish in “The Worker”, under his own name and as "Den", and in “The Bulletin”.
He joined the literary staff of “The Critic” in 1897 and, after a spell doing odd jobs around Broken Hill, returned to The Critic, serving for a time c. 1904 as Editor, to be succeeded by Conrad Eitel. In 1906 Clarence founded “The Gadfly” as a literary magazine; it ceased publication in 1909. From 1922 he served as staff poet on the “Melbourne Herald”. Clarence’s first book of verse, “Backblock ballads and other verses”, was published in 1913.
C.J. Dennis was most lauded during the First World War, when his works were read in the trenches as keenly as they were at home. You can read one of his WW1 poems here: https://allpoetry.com/poem/8486843-War-by-C-J-Dennis
C.J. Dennis married Margaret Herron in 1917. Margaret published two novels and a biography of her husband entitled “Down the Years”.
C.J. Dennis died on 22nd June 1938 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He was buried in Box Hill Cemetery, Melbourne. The Box Hill Historical Society attached a commemorative plaque to the gravestone. C.J. Dennis is also commemorated with a plaque on Circular Quay in Sydney which forms part of the NSW Ministry for the Arts – Writers Walk series, and by a bust outside the town hall of the town of Laura.
“ ‘Vale’John Monash” by C.J. Dennis
So ends a life, lived to the full alway,
Thro' peace, thro' war, thro' honored peace again,
From youth unto the closing of his day
Lived simply. Yet a giant among men
Today steals quietly to seek his rest
As quietly he lived, yet none his peer.
In service of his land he gave his best
And, in simplicity, found greatness here.
Seeking no honour but his country's thanks,
No man among us won a place more high.
Comrade and leader where the myriad ranks
Stand now with bended heads as John goes by.
Ever a man, a soldier and a friend
In every heart some echo of the knell
That marks his passing throbs for this great end,
Saying in requiem, "Pass, John, all is well."
Written by C.J. Dennis in honour of General Sir John Monash GCMG, KCB, VD (27 June 1865 – 8 October 1931), who was also a poet (and an artist).
C.J. Dennis is mentioned in Catherine W. Reilly’s “English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography” (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1978) on page 395 – as an Australian poet
