1803 in literature

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This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1803.

Events[edit]

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]

George Colman – John Bull, or an Englishman's Fireside
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)
Friedrich Schiller – The Bride of Messina (Die Braut von Messina)
Isaac Reed (ed.) – The Plays of William Shakspeare (first variorum edition)

Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de La Reynière – Almanach des gourmands (1st edition)
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)^[4]
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)
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)^[5]

January 1 – James Woodforde, English diarist (born 1740)^[6]
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)^[7]
October 8 – Vittorio Alfieri, Italian dramatist and poet (born 1749)^[8]
December 18 – Johann Gottfried Herder, German philosopher, poet and critic (born 1744)

^ Aleyn Lyell Reade (1923). Johnsonian Gleanings. Francis. p. 132.
^ Wayne A. Wiegand; Donald G. Davis (1994). Encyclopedia of Library History. Taylor & Francis. p. 458. ISBN 978-0-8240-5787-9.
^ Leavis, Q. D. (1965). Fiction and the Reading Public (rev. ed.). London: Chatto & Windus.
^ "Fleming, Marjory (1803–1811), child diarist". www.oxforddnb.com. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-9707. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
^ Griffith Milwyn Griffiths. "Bevan, Evan (1803-1866), poet". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
^ "James Woodforde". The Parson Woodforde Society. Retrieved 2013-04-11.
^ Frank Northen Magill (1958). Masterplots: Cyclopedia of world authors; 753 novelists, poets, playwrights from the world's fine literature. Salem Press. p. 613.
^ Margaretta Jolly (4 December 2013). Encyclopedia of Life Writing: Autobiographical and Biographical Forms. Routledge. p. 32. ISBN 978-1-136-78744-7.