1855 in literature

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