Events William Wordsworth (1770-1850), becomes Poet Laureate of England. New Books The Banker's Wife - Catherine Gore Les Burgraves - Victor Hugo A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens The Gold Bug - Edgar Allen Poe Handley Cross - Robert Smith Surtees The Last of the Barons - Edward George Bulwer-Lytton Le Mouchoir; an Autobiographical Romance - James Fenimore Cooper Martin Chuzzlewit - Charles Dickens Monsieur Violet - Frederick Marryat Perils of the Nation - Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna Windsor Castle - William Harrison Ainsworth Births April 15 - Henry James, writer (+ 1916) Deaths June 6 - Friedrich Hölderlin, German poet, novelist, and dramatist Awards