ABSTRACT

Joseph Dennie was the only child of Joseph and Mary Green Dennie. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on August 30, 1768. Dennie first attended school at the age of seven in Lexington, Massachusetts, where his parents had moved during the Revolutionary War. His father underwent periods of insanity and Dennie's childhood was not one that encouraged his literary talents. He was permitted to prepare for Harvard under the Rev. Samuel West and graduated, despite periods of illness and one rustication for disputes with authorities, in 1790. He served as a law clerk for three years but practiced little after his admission to the Massachusetts bar after a judge rebuked him in his first case for being overly wordy. Dennie's literary career began almost simultaneously with his abandoned law career.