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.^[1]
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.^[2]
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.^[3]

John Allingham
- Hearts of Oak
- The Marriage Promise
George Colman – John Bull
William Dunlap – Voice of Nature (adapted from the French)
Collin d'Harleville – Malice pour malice
Thomas Holcroft – Hear Both Sides
Heinrich von Kleist – Die Familie Schroffenstein
August von Kotzebue – Die deutschen Kleinstädter (comedy, German Small-towners)
Frederick Reynolds – The Three Per Cents
Friedrich Schiller – The Bride of Messina (Die Braut von Messina), premiere in Weimar on March 19
Isaac Reed (ed.) – The Plays of William Shakspeare (first variorum edition)

Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de La Reynière – Almanach des gourmands (1st edition)
Bahadur Ali Hussaini – Akhlaq-e-Hindi, first Urdu book printed in printing-press (ethics)^[5]
Immanuel Kant – Über Pädagogik (On Pedagogy)
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 (2nd edition)
Humphry Repton – Observations on the Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening

January 3 – Douglas William Jerrold, English dramatist (died 1857)
January 15 – Marjorie Fleming, Scottish child writer (died 1811)^[6]
January 27 – Eunice Hale Cobb, American writer, public speaker, and activist (died 1880)
May 16 – Amelie von Strussenfelt, Swedish novelist (died 1847)
May 25
- Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton, English novelist, poet and dramatist (died 1873)
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet, essayist and philosopher (died 1882)
July 20 – Dudley Costello, Irish writer and journalist (died 1865)
September 20 – Catherine Crowe, English novelist, playwright and children's writer (died 1876)
September 28 – Prosper Mérimée, French dramatist and historian (died 1870)
October 25 – Maria Doolaeghe, Flemish novelist (died 1884)^[7]
November 14 – Jacob Abbott, American children's writer (died 1879)
December 6 – Susanna Moodie, English-born Canadian writer (died 1885)
December 31 – José María Heredia y Heredia, Cuban poet (died 1839)

Unknown date – Evan Bevan, Welsh writer of satirical verse (died 1866)^[8]

January 1 – James Woodforde, English diarist (born 1740)^[9]
February 11 – Jean-François de La Harpe, French dramatist and critic (born 1739)
March 14 – Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, German poet (born 1724)
April 9 – Mihály Bakos (Miháo Bakoš), Slovene hymnist and Lutheran minister (born c. 1742)
June 12 – Richard François Philippe Brunck, French classical scholar (born 1729)
August 2 – John Hoole, English translator (born 1727)
September 5 – Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, French novelist (born 1841)^[10]
October 8 – Vittorio Alfieri, Italian dramatist and poet (born 1749)^[11]
December 18 – Johann Gottfried Herder, German philosopher, poet and critic (born 1744)