C. J. DennisPrint Page

The fountain at the site of the Old Auburn Hotel commemorates C. J. Dennis.

C. J. Dennis (1876 - 1938), who was born in Auburn, was the author of `Songs of a Sentimental Bloke` which was published in mid-October 1915. By 5 November 1915 the first edition of 2,480 copies (of which 2,166 were for sale) was sold out. A second edition of 5,000 copies in November also rapidly sold out, as did a third published on 3 December 1915. After nine months the book had sold approximately 51,000 copies.

Later this grew to 66,148 copies of the book sold in Australia and New Zealand alone and did not include the totals for any copies of the editions published in Britain, Canada or the USA. The Bloke struck a nerve with Australian audiences and by September 1916 they had been dramatised for the stage, were performed in Sydney and Melbourne and were probably as popular as it was possible to be at that time.

On 9th October 1916 Dennis published `The Moods of Ginger Mick` based on a character from The Sentimental Bloke which was to sell 42,349 copies within six months. Dennis had become, by sales and by general sentiment, the Laureate of the Larrikin, and the best-known poet in Australia.

Next Sunday, March 29, at 3 p.m., Mr. P. H. Quirke, M.P., will unveil the C. J. Dennis Memorial Fountain at Auburn at 3 pm. Wide interest is being taken in the event, not only in local areas, but throughout the State and interstate. The Monumental Fountain is of blue granite, in three sections, with a bird bath at the foot, and has been built on land opposite the Auburn Institute donated by the District Council of Upper, Wakefield, within a stone's throw of the Auburn Hotel, in a back room of which Dennis was born 77 years ago.
Northern Argus (Clare, SA), 25 March 1953.

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