Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2026, 22 vols. plus supplements.
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.
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Florence Nightingale : 12 May 1855
Women writers item
Author event in Florence Nightingale
12 May 1855
fell ill with Crimean fever, probably typhus, while visiting Balaklava.
Cecil Frances Alexander : 19 May 1855
Women writers item
Earlier 1855: Charles Kingsley published his novel Westward...
Writing climate item
Earlier 1855
published his novel Westward Ho!; Or, The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight . . . in the Reign of Her Most Glorious Majesty Queen Elizabeth.
21 May 1855: The Civil Service Commission was established...
National or international item
21 May 1855
The
was established in response to public pressure to put an end to political appointments, or what the
called those influences which at present burden every department of Government...
Isabella Ormston Ford: 23 May 1855
Women writers item
Author event in Isabella Ormston Ford
23 May 1855
, who wrote under her birth name, was born at St John's Hill, Claredon Road, in Headingley (a suburb of Leeds), the youngest of eight children.
24 May 1855: On this date, The London Times contained...
24 May 1855
On this date, The London Times contained 2,575 advertisements within its sixteen pages.
Florence Dixie: 25 May 1855
Women writers item
Author event in Florence Dixie
25 May 1855
Lady Florence Douglas (later
) was born in London.
Many sources date her birth wrongly. The first edition of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography follows the old Dictionary of National Biography in...
Georgiana Fullerton: 29 May 1855
Women writers item
Author event in Georgiana Fullerton
29 May 1855
, only son of
, died from a brain tumour at the age of twenty-one.
Isabella Beeton: About June 1855
Women writers item
Elizabeth Barrett Browning: June 1855
Women writers item
Author event in Elizabeth Barrett Browning
June 1855
travelled to London via Paris. She returned in October and remained there until the following summer, when she finished writing Aurora Leigh.
Elizabeth Thomas, b. 1771: 1 June 1855
Women writers item
Caroline Norton: June 1855
Women writers item
Author event in Caroline Norton
June 1855
published A Letter to the
on Lord Chancellor
's Marriage and Divorce Bill (after Cranworth had in fact withdrawn his bill).
Fanny Fern: 9 June 1855
Writing climate item
Author event in Fanny Fern
9 June 1855
began the serialisation of her melodramatic novella Fanny Ford: A Story of Everyday Life for the New York Ledger. Earning $100 a column, she became the highest paid newspaper writer of the period.
Elizabeth Sewell: 9 June 1855
Women writers item
Author event in Elizabeth Sewell
9 June 1855
's latest novel, Cleve Hall, which she published as the author of Amy Herbert, was reviewed in the Athenæum by
, who knew the identity of the author.
Virtually all...
Catherine Gore : 11 June 1855
Author event in Catherine Gore
11 June 1855
The banking firm of
, run by
's former guardian,
, filed for bankruptcy in scandalous circumstances; Gore lost £20,000, though she was later able to...
15 June 1855: The Stamp Act tax of a penny per newspaper...
Writing climate item
15 June 1855
The Stamp Act tax of a penny per newspaper was abolished.
29 June 1855: The first number appeared of Daily Telegraph...
Writing climate item
29 June 1855
The first number appeared of Daily Telegraph and Courier, a newspaper which as the Daily Telegraph is still published in London in the twenty-first century.
Caroline Frances Cornwallis : July 1855
Women writers item
Author event in Caroline Frances Cornwallis
July 1855
In her article Self-Education, published under the initials C.F.C. in The Westminster Review,
compared the experience of autodidacts (mostly brilliant) with that of pupils in the current school system.
Anne Manning: July 1855
Women writers item
Author event in Anne Manning
July 1855
Fraser's Magazine published an article severely critical of
's fictional diaries Mary Powell and The Household of Sir Thomas More, which, it said, the public was in danger of accepting as actual historical documents.
July 1855: The first issue of the National Review was...
Writing climate item
July 1855
The first issue of the National Review was published; it became the most celebrated Unitarian periodical and one of the most illustrious quarterlies of the century.
July 1855: Alfred Tennyson published Maud and Other...
Writing climate item
July 1855
published Maud and Other Poems.
July 1855: Painter John Everett Millais married Euphemia...
July 1855
Painter
married
, whose marriage to
had been annulled earlier in the year.
July 1855: The periodical entitled The Bouquet from...
Writing climate item
July 1855
The periodical entitled The Bouquet from Marylebone Gardens ceased publication.
Frances Isabella Duberly : 2 July 1855
Women writers item
Author event in Frances Isabella Duberly
2 July 1855
, who had experienced the loss en route of many letters sent home to England from the Crimea, sent her sister
the greater part of her war journal, for safety, in the...
About 4 July 1855: Walt Whitman published a slim volume of twelve...
Writing climate item
About 4 July 1855
published a slim volume of twelve poems entitled Leaves of Grass; subsequent editions included further poems and revisions.