Editing 1855 in literature

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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of '''1855'''.

==Events==
*January – [[Samuel Orchart Beeton]]'s weekly ''[[Boys' Own|The Boys' Own Magazine]]'', "an illustrated journal of fact, fiction, history and adventure", begins publication in London.<ref>{{cite book|author=John Storey|title=The Making of English Popular Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pw4zDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA79|date=20 May 2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-51967-6|pages=79}}</ref>
*[[January 5]] – [[Anthony Trollope]]'s novel ''[[The Warden]]'', the first of his ''[[Chronicles of Barsetshire]]'', is published in London by [[Longman]] as he begins to write the second, ''[[Barchester Towers]]''.
*[[February 25]] – The comedy ''De Scholtschäin'', by Edmond de la Fontaine writing as [[Dicks (writer)|Dicks]], becomes the first play to be performed in the [[Luxembourgish language|language of Luxembourg]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Deutsche Sprache in Europa und Übersee|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rcRbAAAAMAAJ|year=1979|publisher=F. Steiner|isbn=978-3-515-02993-3|page=97|language=de}}</ref>
*[[June 29]] – ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' newspaper begins publication in London.
*[[July 4]] – [[Walt Whitman]]'s first edition of his book of [[poems]] titled ''[[Leaves of Grass]]'' is published in [[Brooklyn, New York]].
*[[September 27]] – [[Alfred Tennyson]] reads from his new book ''[[Maud and other poems]]'' at a social gathering in the home of [[Robert Browning|Robert]] and [[Elizabeth Barrett Browning|Elizabeth Browning]] in London. [[Dante Gabriel Rossetti]] makes a sketch of him doing so.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Tennyson Reading 'Maud' |url=http://www.preraphaelites.org/the-collection/1904p495/tennyson-reading-maud/ |work=Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource |publisher=[[Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery|Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery]] |accessdate=2013-05-09}}</ref>
*October – [[Victor Hugo]] moves to [[Hauteville House]], [[Saint Peter Port]], [[Guernsey]], in the [[Channel Islands]], accompanied by his mistress, [[Juliette Drouet]].
*December
**[[Charles Dickens]] publishes the first instalment of ''[[Little Dorrit]]'', which continues to appear into 1857.
**[[Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay|Thomas Babington Macaulay]]'s best-selling ''History of England'' in four volumes is completed.<ref>{{Cite web |first=William |last=Thomas |title=Macaulay, Thomas Babington, Baron Macaulay (1800–1859) |work=[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]] |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2004 |edition=Online |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/17349 |accessdate=2014-06-05 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/17349}}{{ODNBsub}}</ref>
*''unknown dates''
**[[Alexander Afanasyev]] begins publication of his collection of ''[[Narodnye russkie skazki]]'' [National Russian Tales].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Marina Balina|author2=Helena Goscilo|author3=Mark Lipovetsky|title=Politicizing Magic: An Anthology of Russian and Soviet Fairy Tales|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I-7ZAAAAMAAJ|date=25 October 2005|publisher=Northwestern University Press|isbn=978-0-8101-2031-0|page=10}}</ref>
**[[John Camden Hotten]] opens a bookselling business in London, which is the origin of the publisher [[Chatto & Windus]].<ref>{{Cite web |first=Simon |last=Eliot |title=Hotten, John Camden (1832–1873) |work=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2004 |edition=Online |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/13859 |accessdate=2013-11-06|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/13859}}</ref>
**[[Faris al-Shidyaq]] publishes the [[metafiction]] ''Sâq 'ala al-sâq'' (Leg over Leg), the first modern [[Arabic]] novel, in [[Paris]].
**The first Luxembourg novel in French, ''Marc Bruno, profil d'artiste'', is published shortly after the death of its author, [[Félix Thyes]] (born 1830). 
**[[Belarusians|Belarusian]] writer [[Vintsent Dunin-Martsinkyevich]] publishes «Гапон» (''Hapon'') in the [[Russian Empire]], the first poem written wholly in modern [[Belarusian language|Belarusian]].

==New books==
===Fiction===
*[[Gheorghe Asachi]] – ''Ziua din urmă a municipiului Iașenilor'' (The Last Day of Iași Municipality)
*[[Edward Bradley (writer)|Cuthbert Bede]] (pseudonym) – ''[[The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green]]'' (other volumes, 1856 and 1857)
*[[Gustav Freytag]] – ''[[Debit and Credit]] (Soll und Haben)''
*[[Elizabeth Gaskell]] – ''[[North and South (1855 novel)|North and South]]''
*[[James Grant (1822–1887)|James Grant]] – ''The Yellow Frigate'' (also entitled ''The Three Sisters'')
*[[Mary Virginia Hawes]] – ''The Hidden Path''
*[[Caroline Lee Hentz]] – ''Robert Graham''
*[[Paul Heyse]] – "L'Arrabbiata" (The Fury, short story)
*[[Washington Irving]] – ''[[Wolfert's Roost]]''
*[[Gottfried Keller]] – ''[[Green Henry]] (Der grüne Heinrich)''
*[[Charles Kingsley]] – ''[[Westward Ho! (novel)|Westward Ho!]]''
*[[Herman Melville]]
**''[[Israel Potter]]''
**''[[The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids]]''
**''[[Benito Cereno]]''
*[[Gérard de Nerval]] – ''Aurelia''
*[[Giovanni Ruffini]] – ''[[Doctor Antonio (novel)|Doctor Antonio]]''
*[[Ann S. Stephens|Ann Sophia Stephens]] – ''The Old Homestead''
*[[William Makepeace Thackeray]] – ''[[The Newcomes]]''
*[[Félix Thyes]] – ''Marc Bruno, profil d'artiste''
*[[Anthony Trollope]] – ''[[The Warden]]'' (first in the Chronicles of Barchester series of six books)

===Children===
*[[Božena Němcová]] – ''[[The Grandmother]]''

===Drama===
*[[Émile Augier]] – ''Le Mariage d'Olympe''
*[[Dicks (writer)|Dicks]]
**''De Scholtschäin''
**''D'Mumm Sèiss''
*[[Léon Gozlan]] – ''Le Gâteau des reines''
*[[Henrik Ibsen]] – ''[[The Feast at Solhaug]]''
*[[Andreas Munch]] – ''En Aften paa Giske''<ref>{{Cite book |chapter=Poetisk realisme og nasjonalromantikk |title=Norges Litteraturhistorie |volume=2 |first=Ingard |last=Hauge |language=Norwegian |editor=Beyer, Edvard |editor-link=Edvard Beyer |pages=318–325 |year=1975 |publisher=Cappelen |location=Oslo}}</ref>
*[[Watts Phillips]] – ''Joseph Chavigny''
*[[Ivan Turgenev]] – ''[[A Month in the Country (play)|A Month in the Country]]'' (published as ''Two Women'')

===Poetry===
*[[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow]] – ''[[The Song of Hiawatha]]''
*[[Walt Whitman]] – ''[[Leaves of Grass]]''

===Non-fiction===
*[[David Brewster]] – ''Memoirs of the Life, Writings and Discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton''
*[[John Brown (fugitive slave)|John Brown]] – ''Slave Life in Georgia''
*[[Pedro Carolino]] – ''O novo guia da conversação em portuguez e inglez'' (translated as ''[[English as She is Spoke]]'')
*[[Frederick Douglass]] – "[[My Bondage and My Freedom]]"
*[[Washington Irving]] – ''The Life of [[George Washington]], Volumes 1 and 2''
*[[George Sand]] – ''Histoire de ma vie'' (The Story of My Life)
*[[William Smith (lexicographer)|William Smith]] – ''Latin–English Dictionary based upon the works of Forcellini and Freund''
*[[Leo Tolstoy]] – ''[[Sevastopol Sketches]] (Севастопольские рассказы, Sevastopolskiye rasskazy)''
*[[Alfred Russel Wallace]] – "On the Law Which has Regulated the Introduction of Species" (in ''Annals and Magazine of Natural History'', September)

==Births==
*[[February 21]] – [[Elizabeth Robins Pennell]], American biographer and critic based in London (died [[1936 in literature|1936]])
*[[April 4]] – [[Manonmaniam Sundaram Pillai]], Indian dramatist (died [[1897 in literature|1897]])
*[[April 27]] – [[Margaret Wolfe Hungerford]], Irish novelist (died [[1897 in literature|1897]])<ref>{{cite web |title=Authors : Hungerford, Margaret W : SFE : Science Fiction Encyclopedia |url=http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/hungerford_margaret_w |website=www.sf-encyclopedia.com |access-date=19 January 2021}}</ref>
*[[May 1]] – [[Marie Corelli]] (Mary Mackay), English novelist (died [[1924 in literature|1924]])
*[[May 21]] – [[Emile Verhaeren]], Belgian Symbolist poet writing in French (died [[1916 in literature|1916]])
*[[May 24]] – Sir [[Arthur Wing Pinero]], English dramatist (died [[1934 in literature|1934]])
*[[July 7]] – [[Ludwig Ganghofer]], German novelist (died [[1920 in literature|1920]])
*[[July 19]] – [[Alexander Ertel]], Russian novelist and short story writer (died [[1908 in literature|1908]])
*[[August 7]] – [[Stanley J. Weyman]], English novelist (died [[1928 in literature|1928]])
*[[September 12]] – [[William Sharp (writer)|William Sharp]], Scottish poet and biographer (died [[1905 in literature|1905]])
*[[September 22]] – [[Alice Zimmern]], English writer, translator and suffragist (died [[1939 in literature|1939]])
*[[October 26]] – [[Jessie Wilson Manning]], American author and lecturer (died [[1947 in literature|1947]])
*[[October 30]] – [[Pyotr Gnedich]], Russian writer and poet (died [[1925 in literature|1925]])
*[[November 4]] – [[William Ritchie Sorley]], Scottish philosopher (died [[1935 in literature|1935]])
*[[December 15]] – [[Maurice Bouchor]], French poet and sculptor (died [[1929 in literature|1929]])
*[[December 28]] – [[Juan Zorrilla de San Martín]], Uruguayan poet (died [[1931 in literature|1931]])<ref>{{cite book|author=Pan American Union|title=Bulletin of the Pan American Union|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PlwqAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA96|year=1932|publisher=The Union|pages=96}}</ref>
*''unknown date''
**[[Solomon Cleaver]], Canadian story teller, novelist and pastor (died [[1939 in literature|1939]])
**[[Florence Huntley]], American journalist, editor, humorist and occult author (died [[1912 in literature|1912]])

==Deaths==
*[[January 3]] – [[János Majláth]], Hungarian poet and historian (born [[1786 in literature|1786]])
*[[January 10]] – [[Mary Russell Mitford]], English dramatist and novelist (born [[1787 in literature|1787]])
*[[January 25]] – [[Dorothy Wordsworth]], English poet and diarist (born [[1771 in literature|1771]])
*[[January 26]] – [[Gérard de Nerval]] (Gérard Labrunie), French poet and essayist (suicide, born [[1808 in literature|1808]])<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sieburth |first=Richard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YFHKmDZgd-cC&pg=PR31 |title=Gerard de Nerval: Selected Writings|page=xxxi |publisher=Penguin |location=London |year=1999}}</ref>
*[[February 4]] – [[Gottfried Christian Friedrich Lücke]], German theologian (born [[1791 in literature|1791]])
*[[March 31]] – [[Charlotte Brontë]], English novelist and poet (born [[1816 in literature|1816]])<ref>{{Cite web |title=Charlotte Brontë {{!}} British author |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charlotte-Bronte |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |accessdate=8 April 2019 |language=en}}</ref>
*[[June 29]] – [[Delphine de Girardin]], French poet and novelist (born [[1804 in literature|1804]])
*[[July 12]] – [[Karl Spindler (novelist)|Karl Spindler]], German novelist, (born [[1796 in literature|1796]])
*[[September 4]] – [[Emma Tatham]], English poet (born [[1829 in literature|1829]])
*[[September 27]] – [[John Adamson (antiquary)|John Adamson]], English antiquary and scholar of Portuguese (born [[1787 in literature|1787]])
*[[November 11]] – [[Søren Kierkegaard]], Danish philosopher (born [[1813 in literature|1813]])
*[[November 19]] – [[Mihály Vörösmarty]], Hungarian poet and dramatist (born [[1800 in literature|1800]])
*[[November 26]] – [[Adam Mickiewicz]], Poland's national poet (cholera, born [[1798 in literature|1798]])
*[[December 3]] – [[Robert Montgomery (poet)|Robert Montgomery]], English poet (born [[1807 in literature|1807]])
*''unknown date'' – [[Sunthorn Phu]], Thai poet (born [[1786 in literature|1786]])

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Year in literature article categories}}