Cirrus@Austlit

'It tells of each character's lifestyle and united bent as wild men of Australia's west who set upon a plan to rob the Sugar and Tea Express. How the plan manifested and what drove them to an apparent reckless course in gaining the never-to-be-found robbery reward is a colourful story herein. The story tells of the life they all led before and after the robbery, but in life gaining wealth by devious means always seems to ultimately bring later regrets. Well at least for some.....now read on.'  (Publication summary)

According to Dennis' wife, The Glugs of Gosh had originated as verse penned to 'amuse' Barry Roberts, the younger son of Dennis' friends and patrons, Garry and Roberta Roberts. The Roberts' presentation copy of the eventual work is annotated 'B. J. Roberts - Sep. 1917 / For whom 'Joi the Glug' was written on 23.6.1914'. In 1915, Dennis saw fit to expand the idea for a wider audience. Six of the thirteen poems in The Glugs of Gosh (and part of a seventh), were published in the Bulletin, the first being 'Joi, the Glug', which appeared on 3 June 1915.

After the extraordinary success of The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, Angus and Robertson were evidently keen to test the limits of Dennis' popularity, and he was commissioned to expand his 'Glugs' series as a book. Dennis' wife wrote that the couple were married (July 1917) after the completion of the book, and that shortly thereafter they travelled to Sydney and met Dennis' publisher George Robertson, and The Glugs of Gosh went to press. Dennis dedicated the work to his wife.

Angus and Robertson published The Glugs of Gosh in a variety of different editions. The ordinary edition was priced at Four Shillings, as was the 'Pocket Edition for the Trenches' - which hoped to capitalise on the wartime popularity of Dennis' earlier works. The Glugs of Gosh was not a commercial success, however. The deluxe 'Blue Wren' edition initially published by Angus and Robertson at Seven Shillings and Sixpence was eventually remaindered at Sixpence a copy, and an edition that had been advertised for publication in North America (as The Stones of Gosh) was apparently never issued. In 1974, an abridged version of The Glugs of Gosh, containing two poems from the original work arranged as a continuous narrative, was published as a children's book.

'Between 1915 and 1921, C. J. Dennis published seven verse novels and two collections of poetry. The first of these was The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke, which features Dennis' characteristic use of a distinctive Australian argot and which became an immediate bestseller.'  (Publication summary)

'I have been wronged and my mother and four or five men lagged innocent and is my brothers and sisters and my mother not to be pitied also who has no alternative only to put up with the brutal and cowardly conduct of a parcel of big ugly fat-necked wombat headed big bellied magpie legged narrow hipped splaw-footed sons of Irish Bailiffs or english landlords which is better known as Officers of Justice or Victorian Police…

'Outlaw, murderer, self-proclaimed victim, Ned Kelly is an Australian icon. But who was he? Kelly’s extraordinary achievement is to have provided his own answer to that question. The Jerilderie Letter is his remarkable manifesto and a startling record of his voice.

'Kelly delivered his letter, which Joe Byrne had diligently written out, on Monday 10 February 1879, immediately after his gang had held up the Bank of New South Wales in Jerilderie. He gives an impassioned defence of his actions, condemns those who have wronged him, and sends a chilling warning to those who may yet defy him.

'This illustrated edition, transcribed from the manuscript now housed in the State Library of Victoria, includes a fascinating new introduction by the historian Alex McDermott. The Jerilderie Letter remains one of the most astonishing documents in Australian history.' (Publication summary)

Arguably the most popular book of poetry ever produced in Australia, The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke was first published in October 1915. Its success was immediate and unprecedented for a book of Australian verse. The first edition of 2,480 copies sold out within weeks, and by the end of February 1916 the book had reached a fifth impression and was still selling well. Tongue firmly in cheek, C. J. Dennis informed his publishers Angus and Robertson that the work's 'success [was] becoming monotonous'. There was more monotony to come, however: the book sold more than 100,000 copies in the first five years after its publication, and was rarely out of print in Dennis's lifetime. Added to this, there were film, stage, and musical versions of the work, as well as recitals given by popular entertainers. In many respects, 'The Sentimental Bloke' became a phenomenon of popular culture that took on a life of its own.

Dennis later claimed that the idea for 'The Sentimental Bloke' came from a 'racy' young man from Melbourne he had met in Toolangi. According to Dennis' wife Margaret Herron, the young man had fallen in love with a farmer's daughter, but the farmer disapproved and forbade her from having anything to do with him. The Melbourne man was said to have complained to Dennis, 'what sort of bloke do they think I am? Blimey, anyone would think I was a crook! Ain't a bloke got sisters of his own?' In Dennis's imagination, this frustrated love affair eventually became a story in which a tough, streetwise young larrikin gives up his dissolute ways for domestic happiness with his sweetheart. A crucial factor in the success of Dennis's 'Sentimental Bloke' verse was that it was narrated from the point of view of 'the Bloke', employing a slang idiom appropriate to the character. In his correspondence with his publishers, Dennis noted that 'the stuff, while not having any considerable literary merit, is, I believe, extremely popular'.