1858 in literature

This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1858.

Events

Edward Sothern as Lord Dundreary

• January 3 – English writer and critic John Ruskin meets 10-year-old Rose La Touche, who becomes his muse, for the first time, at her family's London home.^[1]
• April 29 – Charles Dickens embarks on his first professional tour giving readings from his works; this will comprise 129 appearances in 49 different towns throughout England, Scotland and Ireland.^[2]
• May 15 – The third Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, designed by Edward Middleton Barry, opens, rebuilt after its second destruction by fire (in 1856).
• June 18 – Henrik Ibsen marries Suzannah Thoresen, in the same year that he becomes creative director of Oslo's National Theater.
• September – Charles Baudelaire's study on Théophile Gautier is published in Revue contemporaine.
• October 15 – The farce Our American Cousin by English playwright Tom Taylor premières at Laura Keene's Theatre in New York City with American actor Joe Jefferson in the title rôle and English actor Edward Askew Sothern as Lord Dundreary.
• Khachatur Abovian's historical novel Wounds of Armenia: Lamentation of a Patriot (Վերք Հայաստանի. ողբ հայրենասերի, Verk Hayastani), written in the Yerevan dialect in 1841, is published in Tiflis a decade after the author's presumed death; it is considered the first Armenian novel^[3] and the first modern Eastern Armenian literary work.^[4][5]

New books

Births

• January 22 – Beatrice Webb (Beatrice Potter), English political writer (died 1943)
• January 24 – Constance Naden, English poet and philosopher (died 1889)
• March 12 – Adolph Ochs, American newspaper publisher (died 1935)
• April 15 – Émile Durkheim, French sociologist (died 1917)
• June 20 – Charles W. Chesnutt, American writer (died 1932)
• June 25 – Georges Courteline, French dramatist and novelist (died 1929)
• July 24 – Wolfgang Kapp, Prussian journalist (died 1922)
• August 2 – William Watson, English poet (died 1935)
• August 3 – Paul Sabatier, French religious writer (died 1928)
• November 20 – Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish writer (died 1940)
• December 26 – Owen Morgan Edwards, Welsh historian and educator (died 1920)

Deaths

• February 13 – Hermann Heinrich Gossen, German economist (born 1810)
• February 26 – Thomas Tooke, English economist (born 1774)
• April 22 – Robert Stephen Rintoul, Scottish journalist (born 1787)
• May 3 – Auguste Brizeux, French poet (born 1803)
• May 12 – Georg Benedikt Winer, German theologian (born 1789)
• May 17 – Frank Forester, English novelist and sports writer (born 1807)
• June 3 – Edward Moxon, English poet and publisher (born 1801)
• June 28 – Jane Marcet, English writer of introductory science books (born 1769)
• November 3 – Harriet Taylor Mill, English philosopher (tuberculosis, born 1807)
• November 15 – Johanna Kinkel, German writer and composer (born 1810)
• December 18 – Thomas Holley Chivers, American poet and physician (born 1809)

Awards

References