1855 in literature - Definition

See also: 1854 in literature, other events of 1855, 1856 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

• July 4 - In Brooklyn, New York, Walt Whitman's first edition of his book of poem's titled Leaves of Grass is published.
• Thomas Babington Macaulay's best-selling History of England in four volumes is finished.
• Charles Dickens publishes the first installment of Little Dorritt (in installments through 1857).

New Books

• Aurelia - Gerard Nerval
• Debit and Credit - Gustav Freytag
• The Hidden Path - Mary Virginia Hawes
• Israel Potter - Herman Melville
• Leaves of Grass (poetry) - Walt Whitman
• A Month in the Country - Ivan Turgenev
• The Old Homestead - Ann Sophia Stephens
• The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids - Herman Melville
• Robert Graham - Caroline Lee Hentz
• The Song of Hiawatha (poetry) - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• The Story of My Life - George Sand
• The Warden - Anthony Trollope
• Westward Ho! - Charles Kingsley

Births

• May 1 - Marie Corelli (Mary Mackay) (+ 1924)

Deaths

• January 10 - Mary Russell Mitford, English writer
• March 31 - Charlotte Brontë, author
• November 26 - Adam Mickiewicz, Poland's greatest poet

Awards