1803 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1803.
Events
- June 30 – Novelist Mary Butt marries her cousin, Captain Henry Sherwood, acquiring the surname by which she will become best known.
- September 9 – Bamberg State Library is established in Upper Franconia.
- unknown date – The library which becomes the National Széchényi Library, established in 1802 by Count Ferenc Széchényi, opens to the public in Pest, Hungary.
- Jane Austen's novel Northanger Abbey, a satire on Gothic fiction, is advertised by a London publisher but is not in fact published until 1817, after her death.
New books
Fiction
- Charles Brockden Brown – Memoirs of Carwin the Biloquist
- Sophie Ristaud Cottin – Amélie de Mansfield
- Catherine Cuthbertson – The Romance of the Pyrenees
- Elizabeth Gunning – The War-Office
- Francis Lathom – The Mysterious Freebooter
- Mary Meeke – A Tale of Mystery, or Celina
- Jean Paul - Titan
- Jane Porter – Thaddeus of Warsaw
- Germaine de Staël – ''Margaret of Strafford''
Drama
- John Allingham
- * Hearts of Oak
- * The Marriage Promise
- George Colman – John Bull
- William Dunlap – Voice of Nature
- Collin d'Harleville – Malice pour malice
- Thomas Holcroft – Hear Both Sides
- Heinrich von Kleist – Die Familie Schroffenstein
- August von Kotzebue – Die deutschen Kleinstädter
- Frederick Reynolds – The Three Per Cents
- Friedrich Schiller – The Bride of Messina, premiere in Weimar on March 19
- Isaac Reed – ''The Plays of William Shakspeare''
Poetry
- Henry Kirke White – Clifton Grove, a Sketch in Verse, with other Poems
- Adam Oehlenschlager – ''Digte''
Non-fiction
- Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de La Reynière – Almanach des gourmands
- Bahadur Ali Hussaini – Akhlaq-e-Hindi, first Urdu book printed in printing-press
- Immanuel Kant – Über Pädagogik
- Adamantios Korais – Present Conditions of Civilisation in Greece
- Joseph Lancaster – Improvements in Education as It Respects the Industrious Classes
- Thomas Malthus – An Essay on the Principle of Population
- Humphry Repton – ''Observations on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening''
Births
- January 3 – Douglas William Jerrold, English dramatist
- January 15 – Marjorie Fleming, Scottish child writer
- January 27 – Eunice Hale Cobb, American writer, public speaker, and activist
- May 16 – Amelie von Strussenfelt, Swedish novelist
- May 25
- *Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton, English novelist, poet and dramatist
- *Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet, essayist and philosopher
- July 20 – Dudley Costello, Irish writer and journalist
- September 20 – Catherine Crowe, English novelist, playwright and children's writer
- September 28 – Prosper Mérimée, French dramatist and historian
- October 25 – Maria Doolaeghe, Flemish novelist
- November 14 – Jacob Abbott, American children's writer
- December 6 – Susanna Moodie, English-born Canadian writer
- December 31 – José María Heredia y Heredia, Cuban poet
Deaths
- January 1 – James Woodforde, English diarist
- February 11 – Jean-François de La Harpe, French dramatist and critic
- March 14 – Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, German poet
- April 9 – Mihály Bakos, Slovene hymnist and Lutheran minister
- June 12 – Richard François Philippe Brunck, French classical scholar
- August 2 – John Hoole, English translator
- September 5 – Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, French novelist
- October 8 – Vittorio Alfieri, Italian dramatist and poet
- December 18 – Johann Gottfried Herder, German philosopher, poet and critic