How a dogged researcher tracked down the original Sentimental Bloke – and found a different man to C.J. Dennis’s loveable larrikin
- Written by Philip Butterss, Visiting Research Fellow, University of Adelaide
When C.J. Dennis’s verse novel The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke was launched in 1915, it went off “like a packet of firecrackers”, as the book’s illustrator observed.
This gently humorous story about a larrikin in love gave the nation something to smile about during the horrors of World War I. It sold 1,000 copies a week...
Daily Bulletin
