1903 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1903.
Events
- January–December – Henry James's novel The Ambassadors is published as a serial in the monthly North American Review.
- May 22 – Japanese philosophy student Misao Fujimura carves a poem into a tree at Kegon Falls before committing suicide over unrequited love.
- June 20 – Jack London's novel The Call of the Wild begins serial publication in the Saturday Evening Post.
- October 24 – Mark Twain sets out for Florence.
- December – The Prix Goncourt for French literature is awarded for the first time, to John Antoine Nau for his novel Force ennemie.
- December 16 – The London County Council erects a plaque to novelist Charles Dickens on his former home in Doughty Street.
- December 19 – The first of G. K. Chesterton's short stories in the series The Club of Queer Trades, "The Tremendous Adventures of Major Brown", appears in Harper's Weekly.
- unknown date – William Foyle and his brother Gilbert establish the London bookselling business of Foyles.
New books
Fiction
- Pío Baroja – El Mayorazgo de Labraz
- Ioan A. Bassarabescu – Nuvele
- Thio Tjin Boen – Tjerita Oeij Se
- René Boylesve – Enfant à la Balustrade
- Samuel Butler – The Way of All Flesh
- Erskine Childers – The Riddle of the Sands
- Joseph Conrad – Typhoon and Other Stories
- Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Hueffer – Romance
- Florence Converse – Long Will
- Grazia Deledda – Elias Portolu
- Isabelle Eberhardt – Trimardeur
- John Fox, Jr. – The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come
- Mary E. Wilkins Freeman – The Wind in the Rose Bush
- George Gissing – The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
- Henry James – The Ambassadors
- Jack London – The Call of the Wild
- John Antoine Nau – Force ennemie
- Frank Norris – The Pit
- Marmaduke Pickthall – Said the Fisherman
- Bram Stoker – The Jewel of Seven Stars
- Jules Verne – Travel Scholarships
- Mary Augusta Ward – Lady Rose's Daughter
- Émile Zola – Vérité
- Jerzy Żuławski – ''Na Srebrnym Globie''
Children and young people
- L. Frank Baum – The Enchanted Island of Yew
- Beatrix Potter
- *The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin
- *The Tailor of Gloucester
- Herminie Templeton – Darby O'Gill and the Good People
- Kate Douglas Wiggin – ''Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm''
Drama
- Dusé Mohamed Ali – The Jew's Revenge
- Jacinto Benavente – La noche del sábado
- Haralamb Lecca – Cancer la inimă
- André de Lorde – Le Système du docteur Goudron et du professeur Plume
- W. Somerset Maugham – A Man of Honour
- René Morax – La Dîme
- Ștefan Petică – Frații
- Florencio Sánchez – M'hijo el dotor
- George Bernard Shaw – Man and Superman
- J. M. Synge – In the Shadow of the Glen
- Pierre Wolff – The Secret of Polichinelle
- Stanisław Wyspiański – Wyzwolenie
Poetry
- Giovanni Pascoli – Canti di Castelvecchio
- Thomas Traherne – Poetical Works
- W. B. Yeats – ''In the Seven Woods, being poems of the Irish heroic age''
Non-fiction
- James Allen – As a Man Thinketh
- Ada Cambridge – Thirty Years in Australia
- E. K. Chambers – The Mediaeval Stage
- W. E. B. Du Bois – The Souls of Black Folk
- Helena Rutherfurd Ely – A Woman's Hardy Garden
- Auguste Escoffier – Le Guide culinaire
- Helen Keller – The Story of My Life
- G. E. Moore – Principia Ethica
- John Morley – The Life of Gladstone
- Alois Riegl – Der moderne Denkmalkultus, sein Wesen, seine Entstehung
- W. B. Yeats – ''Ideas of Good and Evil''
Births
- January 10 – E. Arnot Robertson, English novelist and broadcaster
- February 11 – Alan Paton, South African novelist and activist
- February 13 – Georges Simenon, Belgian crime writer
- February 17 – Sadegh Hedayat, Iranian-born novelist
- February 21
- *Anaïs Nin, French-American novelist and diarist
- *Raymond Queneau, French poet
- February 22 – Morley Callaghan, Canadian writer
- February 24
- *Vladimir Bartol, Slovene author
- *Irène Némirovsky, Russian-born French novelist
- June 8 – Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian novelist
- June 18 – Raymond Radiguet, French author
- June 25 – George Orwell, English novelist and journalist
- July 3 – Oliver Stonor, English novelist
- July 10 – John Wyndham, English science fiction writer
- September 5 – János Kemény, American-born Transylvanian Hungarian writer
- September 9 – Edward Upward, English novelist and short story writer
- September 10 – Cyril Connolly, English critic and writer
- September 14 – Mart Raud, Estonian poet, playwright and writer
- October 17
- *G. E. Trevelyan, English novelist
- *Nathanael West, American novelist and screenwriter
- October 28 – Evelyn Waugh, English novelist and critic
- December 6 – Gaito Gazdanov, Russian-born novelist
- December 10
- *Mary Norton, English children's writer
- *William Plomer, South African-born novelist, poet and literary editor
- December 13 – Todhunter Ballard, American novelist
- December 24 – Nancy Brysson Morrison, Scottish novelist
- December 29 – Sergiu Dan, Romanian novelist and journalist
- Uncertain dates – Kathleen Lindsay, prolific English-born romance novelist
Deaths
- January 22 – Augustus Hare, English biographer and travel writer
- February 8 – Ada Ellen Bayly, English novelist
- March 4 – Joseph Henry Shorthouse, English novelist
- March 6 – Gaston Paris, French literary critic and scholar
- March 8 – Josefina Wettergrund, Swedish writer
- March 9 – Minnie Mary Lee, American author of poems, stories, sketches and novels
- March 14 – Ernest Legouvé, French dramatist
- April 28 — Frances Augusta Conant, American journalist
- April 29 – Paul Du Chaillu, French American travel writer
- May 12 – Richard Henry Stoddard, American critic and poet
- May 24 – Max O'Rell, French journalist
- June 12 – Claymoor, Romanian fashion and entertainment critic
- July 11 – W. E. Henley, English poet
- August 31 – William Hastie, Scottish theologian
- September 1 – Charles Bernard Renouvier, French philosopher
- October 4 – Otto Weininger, Austrian philosopher
- November 1 – Theodor Mommsen, German classical scholar and historian
- November 11 — Lavilla Esther Allen, American author
- November 19 – Hugh Stowell Scott, English novelist
- December 28 – George Gissing, English novelist