1854 in literature

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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1854.

Events[]

Tolstoy during the Crimean War, c. 1854

March 2 – An adaptation of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice into Bengali, Bhānumatī-chittavilās by Hara Chandra Ghosh, is staged;^[1] also, Dinabandhu Mitra introduces Falstaff in Nabin Tapaswini.
March 20 – The Boston Public Library opens to the public in the United States.
April 1 – August 12 – Charles Dickens's novel Hard Times, is serialised in his magazine Household Words.^[2] From September 2, it is followed in the magazine by Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, another social novel based in the Lancashire manufacturing district.
July – Publication begins of Anthony Trollope's novel Barchester Towers (1857).
November – Crimean War: Future novelist Leo Tolstoy arrives to take part as a defending soldier in the Siege of Sevastopol (1854–55).^[3] Off-duty he is reading Thackeray's novels in French translation.
December 14 – Wilkie Collins's "The Lawyer's Story of a Stolen Letter", published as "The Fourth Poor Traveller" in The Seven Poor Travellers – the Household Words special Christmas number – is the first non-police detective fiction published in Britain.^[4]
unknown dates
- John Rollin Ridge's The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta, The Celebrated California Bandit is the first novel by a Native American in the United States (writing as "Yellow Bird") to be published.^[5]
- The Polyglotta Africana, an early classification of African languages based on field work under freed slaves in Freetown, Sierra Leone, is published by Sigismund Wilhelm Koelle.^[6]

New books[]

Fiction[]

Margaret Jewett Smith Bailey (anonymously) – The Grains, or, Passages in the Life of Ruth Rover, with Occasional Pictures of Oregon, Natural and Moral
Jules Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly – L'Ensorcelée
William Wells Brown – Sketches of Places and People Abroad
Camilla Collett (anonymously) – [no] (The District Governor's Daughters, first part)
Wilkie Collins – Hide and Seek
John Esten Cooke – The Virginia Comedians
Maria Cummins – The Lamplighter
Charles Dickens – Hard Times
Fanny Fern – Ruth Hall
Mathilde Fibiger – Minona
Frederick Greenwood – The Loves of an Apothecary
Francesco Domenico Guerrazzi – Beatrice Cenci
Nathaniel Hawthorne – Mosses from an Old Manse
Caroline Lee Hentz – The Planter's Northern Bride
Mary Jane Holmes – Tempest and Sunshine
Mary Russell Mitford – Atherton
Gérard de Nerval – Les Filles du feu (short stories)
Charles Reade – The Courier of Lyons
Solon Robinson – Hot Corn
E. D. E. N. Southworth – The Lost Heiress
Leo Tolstoy – Boyhood («Отрочество», Otrochestvo)

Children and young people[]

Anna Eliza Bray – A Peep at the Pixies, or Legends of the West (illustrated by Phiz)

Drama[]

Émile Augier and Jules Sandeau – Le Gendre de M. Poirier
Andreas Munch – Salomon de Caus^[7]
Alexander Ostrovsky – Poverty is No Vice («Бедность не порок», Bednost ne porok)
Charles Reade – The Courier of Lyons
Zacharias Topelius – Regina von Emmeritz

Poetry[]

R. D. Blackmore – Poems by Melanter
Coventry Patmore – The Angel in the House
Emma Tatham – The Dream of Pythagoras and Other Poems
Alfred Tennyson – "The Charge of the Light Brigade"

Non-fiction[]

Samuel Bache – Exposition of Unitarian Views of Christianity
George Boole – The Laws of Thought
William Erskine with Claudius James Erskine – History of India under the two first sovereigns of the house of Taimur, Baber, and Humayun^[8]
F. W. Fairholt – Dictionary of Terms in Art
Ludwig Feuerbach – The Essence of Christianity (Das Wesen des Christentums)
Kuno Fischer – History of Modern Philosophy (Geschichte der neueren Philosophie), vol. 1
Elisha Kane – The U. S. Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin: a Personal Narrative^[9]
Eliphas Levi – Dogme et rituel de la haute magie (Dogma and Ritual of High Magic), vol. 1, Dogme
Theodor Mommsen – History of Rome (Römische Geschichte), vol. 1
John Neal – One Word More: Intended for the Reasoning and Thoughtful among Unbelievers^[10]
Henry David Thoreau – Walden, or Life in the Woods

Births[]

March 13 – Kolachalam Srinivasa Rao, Indian dramatist (died 1919)
March 14 – Alexandru Macedonski, Romanian poet, novelist and dramatist (died 1920)
May 24 – Mona Caird, English novelist, essayist and feminist (died 1932)
May 25 – Clara Louise Burnham, née Root, American novelist (died 1927)
June 10
- François, Vicomte de Curel, French dramatist (died 1928)
- Sarah Grand, Irish author and women's rights advocate (died 1943)
July 7 – W. C. Morrow, American writer, noted for his stories of horror and suspense. (died 1923)
August 2 – Francis Marion Crawford, American novelist (died 1909)
October 16 – Oscar Wilde, Irish dramatist, poet and wit (died 1900)^[11]
October 20
- Alphonse Allais, French humorist (died 1905)^[12]
- Arthur Rimbaud, French poet (died 1891)^[13]

Deaths[]

January 5 – Gottschalk Eduard Guhrauer, German philologist and biographer (born 1809)
February 4 – George Watterston, American librarian of Congress (born 1783)
April 3 – John Wilson, Scottish poet and journalist (born 1785)
April 7 – Pierre-François Tissot, French historian and memoirist (born 1768)
April 16 – Julia Nyberg, Swedish poet (born 1784)
April 24 – Gabriele Rossetti, Italian poet (born 1783)
April 30 – James Montgomery, Scottish-born poet and hymnist (born 1771)
July 20 – Caroline Anne Southey (Caroline Anne Bowles), English poet (born 1786)
October 14 – Samuel Phillips, English journalist (born 1814)
November 5 – Susan Edmonstone Ferrier, Scottish novelist (born 1782)
November 25 – John Kitto, English Biblical commentator (born 1804)
December 9 – Almeida Garrett, Portuguese poet, novelist and dramatist (born 1799)

Awards[]

Chancellor's Gold Medal – Herbert John Reynolds^[14]
July – Opening of Anthony Trollope's novel Barchester Towers (1857).

References[]

^ P. Guha-Thakurta (5 September 2013). The Bengali Drama: Its Origin and Development. Routledge. pp. 50–. ISBN 978-1-136-38553-7.
^ Schlicke, Paul (3 November 2011). The Oxford Companion to Charles Dickens: Anniversary Edition. OUP Oxford. p. 267. ISBN 978-0-19-964018-8.
^ Sevastopol Sketches.
^ Gasson, Andrew. "Wilkie Collins Information". Retrieved 2015-11-10.
^ MacKay, K. L. "Native American Literature – selected bibliography". Retrieved 2014-02-21.
^ Jack Berry; Thomas Albert Sebeok (21 August 2017). Linguistics in Sub-Saharan Africa. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 19. ISBN 978-3-11-156252-0.
^ Hauge, Ingard (1975). "Poetisk realisme og nasjonalromantikk". In Beyer, Edvard (ed.). Norges Litteraturhistorie (in Norwegian). Vol. 2. Oslo: Cappelen. pp. 318–325.
^ Katherine Prior, "Erskine, William (1773–1852)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2004) Retrieved 8 November 2017, pay-walled.
^ "The U.S. Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin: a Personal Narrative". World Digital Library. 1854. Retrieved 2013-10-02.
^ Richards, Irving T. (1933). The Life and Works of John Neal (PhD). Harvard University. p. 1883. OCLC 7588473.
^ "BBC - History - Historic Figures: Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
^ Alphonse Allais; Miles Kington (30 July 2015). The World of Alphonse Allais. Faber & Faber. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-571-30609-1.
^ Enid Starkie (1939). Arthur Rimbaud. W.W. Norton & Company. p. 16.
^ University of Cambridge, A complete collection of the English poems: which have obtained the chancellor's gold medal in the University of Cambridge, 1859.

[Guha-Thakurta2013-1] P. Guha-Thakurta (5 September 2013). The Bengali Drama: Its Origin and Development. Routledge. pp. 50–. ISBN 978-1-136-38553-7.

[2] Schlicke, Paul (3 November 2011). The Oxford Companion to Charles Dickens: Anniversary Edition. OUP Oxford. p. 267. ISBN 978-0-19-964018-8.

[3] Sevastopol Sketches.

[4] Gasson, Andrew. "Wilkie Collins Information". Retrieved 2015-11-10.

[5] MacKay, K. L. "Native American Literature – selected bibliography". Retrieved 2014-02-21.

[6] Jack Berry; Thomas Albert Sebeok (21 August 2017). Linguistics in Sub-Saharan Africa. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 19. ISBN 978-3-11-156252-0.

[7] Hauge, Ingard (1975). "Poetisk realisme og nasjonalromantikk". In Beyer, Edvard (ed.). Norges Litteraturhistorie (in Norwegian). Vol. 2. Oslo: Cappelen. pp. 318–325.

[8] Katherine Prior, "Erskine, William (1773–1852)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, UK: OUP, 2004) Retrieved 8 November 2017, pay-walled.

[WDL-9] "The U.S. Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin: a Personal Narrative". World Digital Library. 1854. Retrieved 2013-10-02.

[10] Richards, Irving T. (1933). The Life and Works of John Neal (PhD). Harvard University. p. 1883. OCLC 7588473.

[11] "BBC - History - Historic Figures: Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900)". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 3 January 2017.

[12] Alphonse Allais; Miles Kington (30 July 2015). The World of Alphonse Allais. Faber & Faber. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-571-30609-1.

[13] Enid Starkie (1939). Arthur Rimbaud. W.W. Norton & Company. p. 16.

[14] University of Cambridge, A complete collection of the English poems: which have obtained the chancellor's gold medal in the University of Cambridge, 1859.

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