1855 in literature

List of years in literature (table)
... 1845 ^. 1846 ^. 1847 ^. 1848 ^. 1849 ^. 1850 ^. 1851 ... 1852 1853 1854 -1855- 1856 1857 1858 ... 1859 ^. 1860 ^. 1861 ^. 1862 ^. 1863 ^. 1864 ^. 1865 ... In poetry: 1852 1853 1854 -1855- 1856 1857 1858
Art ^. Archaeology ^. Architecture ^. Literature ^. Music ^. Philosophy ^. Science +...

The year 1855 in literature involved some significant literary events and new books.

Events

January - Samuel Orchart Beeton's weekly The Boys' Own Magazine ("an illustrated journal of fact, fiction, history and adventure") begins publication in London.
June 29 - The Daily Telegraph newspaper begins publication in London.
July 4 - In Brooklyn, New York, Walt Whitman's first edition of his book of poems titled Leaves of Grass is published.
September 27 - Alfred Tennyson reads from his new book Maud and other poems at a social gathering in the home of Robert and Elizabeth Browning in London; Dante Gabriel Rossetti makes a sketch of him doing so.^[1]
October - Victor Hugo moves to Hauteville House in Saint Peter Port on Guernsey in the Channel Islands.
December
- Charles Dickens publishes the first instalment of Little Dorrit (continuing into 1857).
- Thomas Babington Macaulay's best-selling History of England in four volumes is completed.^[2]
Alexander Afanasyev begins publication of his collection of Russian Fairy Tales (Народные Русские Сказки, Narodnye russkie skazki).
John Camden Hotten opens a bookselling business in London, origin of the publisher Chatto & Windus.^[3]
This is a notable year in Luxembourg literature: the first Luxembourg novel in French, Marc Bruno, profil d'artiste, is published shortly after the death of its author, Félix Thyes (born 1830); and the comedy De Scholtschäin, by Edmond de la Fontaine writing as Dicks, becomes the first play to be performed in the Luxembourgish language.

David Brewster - Memoirs of the Life, Writings and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton
John Brown - Slave Life in Georgia
Robert Hare - Experimental Investigation of Spirit Manifestations: Demonstrating the Existence of Spirits and Their Communication with Mortals
Washington Irving - The Life of George Washington, Volumes 1 and 2
George Sand - Histoire de ma vie ("The Story of My Life")
Alfred Russel Wallace - On the Law Which has Regulated the Introduction of Species

April 4 – Manonmaniam Sundaram Pillai, Indian dramatist (died 1897)
April 27 – Margaret Wolfe Hungerford, Irish novelist (died 1897)
May 1 – Marie Corelli (Mary Mackay), English novelist (died 1924)
May 21 – Emile Verhaeren, Belgian Symbolist poet writing in French (died 1916)
May 24 – Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, English dramatist (died 1934)
July 7 – Ludwig Ganghofer, German novelist (died 1920)
July 19 – Alexander Ertel, Russian novelist and short story writer (died 1908)
August 7 – Stanley J. Weyman, English novelist (died 1928)
September 12 – William Sharp, Scottish poet and biographer (died 1905)
September 22 – Alice Zimmern, English writer, translator and suffragist (died 1939)
October 30 – Pyotr Gnedich, Russian writer and poet (died 1925)
November 4 – William Ritchie Sorley, Scottish philosopher (died 1935))
December 15 – Maurice Bouchor, French poet and sculptor (died 1929)
December 28 – Juan Zorrilla de San Martín, Uruguayan poet (died 1931)
Unknown date – Solomon Cleaver, Canadian story teller, novelist and pastor (died 1939)

January 3 – János Majláth, Hungarian poet and historian (born 1786)
January 10 – Mary Russell Mitford, English dramatist and novelist (born 1787)
January 25 – Dorothy Wordsworth, English poet and diarist (born 1771)
January 26 – Gérard de Nerval (Gérard Labrunie), French poet and essayist (suicide, born 1808)^[5]
February 4 – Gottfried Christian Friedrich Lücke, German theologian (born 1791)
March 31 – Charlotte Brontë, English novelist and poet (born 1816)
June 29 – Delphine de Girardin, French poet and novelist (born 1804)
July 12 – Karl Spindler, German novelist, (born 1796)
September 27 – John Adamson, English antiquary and scholar of Portuguese (born 1787)
November 11 – Søren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher (born 1813)
November 19 – Mihály Vörösmarty, Hungarian poet and dramatist (born 1800)
November 26 – Adam Mickiewicz, Poland's national poet (cholera, born 1798)
December 3 – Robert Montgomery, English poet (born 1807)
Unknown date – Sunthorn Phu, Thai poet (born 1786)

↑ "Tennyson Reading 'Maud'". Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource. Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery. Retrieved 2013-05-09.
↑ Thomas, William (2004). "Macaulay, Thomas Babington, Baron Macaulay (1800–1859)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/17349. Retrieved 2014-06-05. (subscription or UK public library membership required)
↑ Eliot, Simon (2004). "Hotten, John Camden (1832–1873)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/13859. Retrieved 2013-11-06.
↑ Hauge, Ingard (1975). "Poetisk realisme og nasjonalromantikk". In Beyer, Edvard. Norges Litteraturhistorie (in Norwegian) 2. Oslo: Cappelen. pp. 318–325.
↑ Sieburth, Richard (1999). Gerard de Nerval: Selected Writings. London: Penguin. p. xxxi.