"C. J. DENNIS - His Remarkable Career" - Alec Chisholm (Aust 1946)
I love history, I love Australian history, I love literary history. Which is why I've been looking for a biography of poet C J Dennis (1876-1938) for a while, fell over this one in an Op Shop, and it appealed because it was done in 1946, just 8 years after his death, which meant Chisholm got to talk to people who actually knew Dennis, even a couple that went to school with him.
Don't get me wrong, even though I have his two most well-known collections, and have read them, Dennis's poetry is now terribly dated, being of the back streets of Melbourne around WWI, reading today like a send-up of London East End Cockney more that anything much recognisable as Australian "slanguage". You have to read behind the idiom nowadays to enjoy the stories of The Sentimental Bloke and Doreen and Ginger Mick. But worth it if you persevere.
Anyway, this is his biography, which paints such an insightful picture of the writer and his times, and surprising to find just how totally unlike his characters Dennis was. And a bit sad to see that in later life how he couldn't change, couldn't move on in his literary material, was stuck in a mould, a victim to some degree of his own phenomenal success (J K Rowling springs to mind?).
And another thing, this bloke's story is an object lesson for writers today, as Dennis had to work hard at it, pretty much with dedication, and success didn't come overnight. But he grafted and worked the angles, and grabbed at luck when it happened. Worth a read just for that.
Cheers....
T.R.E.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>