Events Timeline

Orlando includes short event entries, freestanding and embedded in author profiles, about moments and processes relevant to literary history and organized into four categories: Women writers, Writing Climate, Political Climate, and Social Climate. Explore the timelines by searching for date(s) and/or words or phrases associated with them.

15926 - 15950 of 43197

Search by

-
Event origin
Event type

Violet Fane: By early 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Violet Fane

By early 1855

By the age of twelve, Mary Montgomerie Lamb (who grew up to become VF ) moved with her family to 15 Park Road, London, when her father 's blindness came to require increased medical attention.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Fane, Violet. “The Feast of Kebobs”. Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, Vol.
175
, No. 1062, Apr. 1904, pp. 459-82.
459-61

March 1855: Tsar Nicholas I died, and was succeeded by...

National or international item

March 1855

Tsar Nicholas I died, and was succeeded by his son Alexander II .
Cowie, Leonard W., and Leonard Woolfson. Years of Nationalism: European History 1815-1890. Edward Arnold, 1985.
207, 210

Mary Anne Duffus Hardy: By 10 March 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Mary Anne Duffus Hardy

By 10 March 1855

Mary Anne Duffus Hardy published a book of poetry entitled War Notes from the Crimea.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1428 (1855): 290

George Eliot: 14 March 1855

Women writers item
Author event in George Eliot

14 March 1855

Marian Evans (later GE ) and George Henry Lewes returned from the Continent to England, where they soon settled at East Sheen, near Richmond and just outside London.
Ashton, Rosemary. George Eliot: A Life. Hamish Hamilton, 1996.
137
Haight, Gordon S. George Eliot: A Biography. Oxford University Press, 1968.
181

Mary Howitt: By 17 March 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Mary Howitt

By 17 March 1855

Mary Howitt published Human Habitations, part one of her Illustrated Library for the Young; two series of this were issued together in 1856.
The Athenaeum Index of Reviews and Reviewers: 1830-1870. http://replay.web.archive.org/20070714065452/http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~asp/v2/home.html.
1429 (1855): 320
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.

Julia Kavanagh: By 17 March 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Julia Kavanagh

By 17 March 1855

JK published the three-volume novel Grace Lee, A Tale.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1429 (1855): 313-4

Olive Schreiner: 24 March 1855

Writing climate item
Author event in Olive Schreiner

24 March 1855

OS was born in the then Cape Colony in what is now South Africa, in a mud-walled Wesleyan mission station at Wittebergen, on the Basutoland border.
First, Ruth, and Ann Scott. Olive Schreiner. André Deutsch, 1980.
42, 47-8

Geraldine Jewsbury: By 24 March 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Geraldine Jewsbury

By 24 March 1855

GJ published her fourth novel, Constance Herbert, which is again historical.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1430 (1855): 343

Charlotte Brontë: 31 March 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Charlotte Brontë

31 March 1855

CB , Mrs Arthur Bell Nicholls, died at Haworth of a chill, which was called tuberculosis. It is now generally supposed that she died because she was weakened by exceptionally heavy morning sickness in her pregnancy.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Barker, Juliet. The Brontës. St Martin’s Press, 1994.
772
Gaskell, Elizabeth. The Life of Charlotte Brontë. Editor Shelston, Alan, Penguin, 1975.
523

Louisa Catherine Shore: By 31 March 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Louisa Catherine Shore

By 31 March 1855

LCS 's first appearance in The Spectator led to the publication of a volume of poems about the Crimean War by her and her sister Arabella , War Lyrics.
The Athenaeum Index of Reviews and Reviewers: 1830-1870. http://replay.web.archive.org/20070714065452/http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~asp/v2/home.html.
1431 (31 March 1855): 376
Blain, Virginia et al., editors. The Feminist Companion to Literature in English: Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present. Yale University Press; Batsford, 1990.

Menella Bute Smedley: Probably later 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Menella Bute Smedley

Probably later 1855

After the death abroad (on 2 April) of the geologist George Bellas Greenough , MBS was one of the cousins who received a share of his considerable fortune: five thousand pounds.
Bellas, Tom. Emails to Orlando about Menella Bute Smedley. 8 Sept. 2009.

Elizabeth Siddal: Spring 1855

Building item
Author event in Elizabeth Siddal

Spring 1855

Art critic and patron John Ruskin bought for £30 all of artist ES 's available work, and put her on a quarterly allowance of £150 per year.
Marsh, Jan, and Pamela Gerrish Nunn. Women Artists and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement. Virago, 1989.
69-70
Marsh, Jan. Elizabeth Siddal, 1829-1862: Pre-Raphaelite Artist. The Ruskin Gallery, 1991.
22

1855: James Ridgway published a pamphlet entitled...

Building item

1855

James Ridgway published a pamphlet entitled Remarks on the Law of Marriage and Divorce; suggested by the Honourable Mrs Norton 's Letter to the Queen.
Shanley, Mary Lyndon. Feminism, Marriage, and the Law in Victorian England. Princeton University Press, 1989.
157

9 April 1855: American Daniel Dunglas Home arrived in England...

Building item

9 April 1855

American Daniel Dunglas Home arrived in England as a self-proclaimed spiritualist missionary.
Porter, Katherine H. Through a Glass Darkly: Spiritualism in the Browning Circle. Octagon, 1972.
3-4, 115

Charlotte Guest: 10 April 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Charlotte Guest

10 April 1855

After two and a half years as a widow and after much trial and inexpressible opposition,
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Guest, Charlotte. Extracts from her Journal, 1853-1891. Editor Bessborough, Vere Brabazon Ponsonby, Earl of, John Murray, 1952.
45
Lady CG married a man fourteen years younger than herself: Charles Schreiber , a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge

Jane Loudon: By mid-April 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Jane Loudon

By mid-April 1855

The last book that JL published was My Own Garden, or, The Young Gardener's Year Book.
The Athenaeum Index of Reviews and Reviewers: 1830-1870. http://replay.web.archive.org/20070714065452/http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~asp/v2/home.html.
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. 18 July 2011, http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.
Howe, Bea. Lady with Green Fingers. Country Life, 1961.
145

By 14 April 1855: Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton published his...

Writing climate item

By 14 April 1855

Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton published his first book of poetry, Clytemnestra, The Earl's Return, The Artist, and Other Poems, as Owen Meredith.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
“Dictionary of Literary Biography online”. Gale Databases: Literature Resource Center-LRC.
32
The Athenaeum Index of Reviews and Reviewers: 1830-1870. http://replay.web.archive.org/20070714065452/http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~asp/v2/home.html.
1433 (14 April 1855): 426-7

By 21 April 1855: James Dawson Burn published The Language...

Building item

By 21 April 1855

James Dawson Burn published The Language of the Walls, one of only a handful of books describing the contemporary advertising business.
Fenstermaker, John J. “Thomas Carlyle, Popular Advertising, and the Commerical Spirit in Victorian England”. Studies in Popular Culture, Vol.
15
, No. 1, 1992, pp. 25-36.
29
Richards, Thomas. The Commodity Culture of Victorian England: Advertising and Spectacle, 1851-1914. Stanford University Press, 1990.
47
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1434: 457-8

Frances Power Cobbe: Spring 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Frances Power Cobbe

Spring 1855

FPC anonymously published the first volume of her first book, entitled An Essay on Intuitive Morals, Being an Attempt to Popularize Ethical Science, Part 1: Theory of Morals.
She proclaimed her authorship with a...

Marie Corelli: 1 May 1855

Writing climate item
Author event in Marie Corelli

1 May 1855

Mary Mackay, later MC , was born in London.
Ransom, Teresa. The Mysterious Miss Marie Corelli: Queen of Victorian Bestsellers. Sutton, 1999.
227

Jessie White Mario: May 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Jessie White Mario

May 1855

After completing her studies in Paris and European travels, Jessie White (later JWM ) returned to England.
Daniels, Elizabeth Adams. Jessie White Mario: Risorgimento Revolutionary. Ohio University Press, 1972.
10

1 May 1855: At the wedding of Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell...

Building item

1 May 1855

At the wedding of Lucy Stone and Henry Blackwell in Massachusetts, they protested against the legal restrictions imposed on women after marriage.
Stone Blackwell, Alice. Lucy Stone: Pioneer of Women’s Rights. Little, Brown, and Company, 1971.
Stone, 166-169

Anna Mary Howitt: Spring 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Anna Mary Howitt

Spring 1855

AMH exhibited for the only time at the Royal Academy , with a picture entitled The Castaway, which depicts a fallen woman or prostitute.
McMaster, Juliet. That Mighty Art of Black-and-White. Linley Sambourne, Punch, and the Royal Academy. Ad Hoc Press, 2009.
3
Graves, Algernon. The Royal Academy of Art. Henry Graves and George Bell, 1906, 8 vols.

7 May 1855: Painter Joanna Mary Boyce's Elgiva was hung...

Building item

7 May 1855

Painter Joanna Mary Boyce 's Elgiva was hung at the Royal Academy exhibition; this was Boyce's first public exposure.
Marsh, Jan, and Pamela Gerrish Nunn. Women Artists and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement. Virago, 1989.
49
McMaster, Juliet. That Mighty Art of Black-and-White. Linley Sambourne, Punch, and the Royal Academy. Ad Hoc Press, 2009.
3

Elizabeth Gaskell: 8 May 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Elizabeth Gaskell

8 May 1855

EG entered into the first known English agreement for royalty payment on a new edition of Cranford and a collection of Lizzie Leigh and Other Tales put out by Chapman and Hall .
Gaskell, Elizabeth. The Letters of Mrs Gaskell. Editors Chapple, J. A. V. and Arthur Pollard, Harvard University Press, 1967.
406-7, 967
Sutherland, John, b. 1938. Victorian Novelists and Publishers. University of Chicago Press, 1976.
97-8