1858 in literature

	… 1848; 1849; 1850; 1851; 1852; 1853; 1854; ; 1855; 1856; 1857; 1858; 1859; 1860; 1861; ; 1862; 1863; 1864; 1865; 1866; 1867; 1868 …;
	In poetry 1855 1856 1857 1858 1859 1860 1861
	Art; Archaeology; Architecture; Literature; Music; Philosophy; Science; +...

The year 1858 in literature involved some significant new books.

Events

Henrik Ibsen marries and becomes creative director of Oslo's National Theater.
Charles Baudelaire's study on Théophile Gautier is published in Revue contemporaine.
John Ruskin meets Rose la Touche.
The third Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, designed by Edward Middleton Barry, opens on May 15. It was rebuilt after the fire of 1856 destroyed the second theatre (as the fire of 1808 had destroyed the first).

Tom Taylor - Our American Cousin
Thomas Holley Chivers - The Sons of Usna: a Tragic Apotheosis in Five Acts, published this year

Gray's Anatomy - 1st edition
William H. Prescott - History of Philip II, volume 3
Alfred Russel Wallace - On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely From the Original Type
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. - The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table

January 22 - Beatrice Webb, political writer, wife and collaborator of Sidney Webb
March 12 - Adolph Ochs, newspaper publisher
April 15 - Émile Durkheim, sociologist
June 25 – Georges Courteline, dramatist and novelist (d. 1929)
July 24 - Wolfgang Kapp, journalist
August 3 - Paul Sabatier, religious writer
November 20 - Selma Lagerlöf Swedish writer (+ 1940)
date unknown - Sir Owen Morgan Edwards, historian and educator (+ 1920)
date unknown - William Watson, poet