1843 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1843.

Events

 * January
 * Serial publication begins of Charles Dickens' picaresque novel The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit by Chapman & Hall in London. In the July chapters, he lands his hero in the United States.
 * Edgar Allan Poe's Gothic short story "The Tell-Tale Heart" appears in The Pioneer in Boston and his poem "The Conqueror Worm" in Graham's Magazine in Philadelphia.
 * February – Macmillan Publishers is founded in London by the Scottish brothers Daniel and Alexander Macmillan.
 * April 4 – William Wordsworth accepts the office of Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, after the death of Robert Southey on March 21. He is reassured that it is seen as a purely honorific position.
 * June 21 – Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Gold-Bug" begins to be serialized in the Philadelphia Dollar Newspaper as the winning entry in a competition, earning Poe a $100 prize. It will be widely reprinted and adapted for theater. It popularizes cryptography.
 * July – Margaret Fuller's "The Great Lawsuit. Man versus Men. Woman versus Women" appears in The Dial magazine in the United States. It will later be expanded into a book, Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1845).
 * August 19 – Edgar Allan Poe's Gothic short story "The Black Cat" is first published in The Saturday Evening Post.
 * August 22 – The Theatres Act in the United Kingdom ends a virtual monopoly of theatrical performances held by the patent theatres and encourages development of popular entertainment.
 * September – Ada Lovelace (Byron's daughter) translates and expands Menabrea's notes on Charles Babbage's analytical engine, including an algorithm for calculating a sequence of Bernoulli numbers, seen as the world's first computer program.
 * October – Anna Atkins begins publishing Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions, a collection of contact printed cyanotype photograms of algae, to form the first book illustrated with photographs.
 * December 17 – Publication of Charles Dickens' novella A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas by Chapman & Hall is made at his expense. It introduces the character Ebenezer Scrooge. Released on December 19, the first printing sells out by Christmas Eve.
 * Christmas – Thomas Hood's poem "The Song of the Shirt" appears in Punch.
 * unknown dates
 * The Routledge publishing firm is founded in London by the Cumberland-born bookseller George Routledge.
 * The steam-powered rotary printing press is invented by Richard March Hoe in the United States.

Fiction

 * William Harrison Ainsworth – Windsor Castle
 * Edward Bulwer-Lytton – The Last of the Barons
 * James Fenimore Cooper – Le Mouchoir; an Autobiographical Romance
 * Charles Dickens
 * A Christmas Carol
 * Martin Chuzzlewit
 * Alexandre Dumas, père – Georges
 * Catherine Gore – The Banker's Wife
 * Léon Gozlan – Aristide Froissart
 * Victor Hugo – Les Burgraves
 * Søren Kierkegaard – Diary of a Seducer (literary novel included in Either/Or)
 * John Neal — Ruth Elder
 * Frederick Marryat – Monsieur Violet
 * Eugène Sue – The Mysteries of Paris
 * Robert Smith Surtees – Handley Cross
 * Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna – Perils of the Nation

Children and young people

 * Hans Christian Andersen – New Fairy Tales. First Volume. First Collection (Nye Eventyr. Første Bind. Første Samling) comprising "The Angel" ("Engelen"), "The Nightingale" ("Nattergalen"), "The Sweethearts; or, The Top and the Ball" ("Kjærestefolkene [Toppen og bolden]") and "The Ugly Duckling" ("Den grimme ælling")

Drama

 * Eusebio Asquerino – Casada, vírgen y mártir
 * V. A. Bhave – Sita Swayamvar
 * Théophile Gautier – Un Voyage en Espagne
 * Nikolai Gogol – The Gamblers
 * James Sheridan Knowles – The Secretary
 * W. T. Moncrieff – The Scamps of London

Poetry

 * Thomas Hood – "The Song of the Shirt"
 * Richard Henry Horne – Orion: an epic poem
 * Edgar Allan Poe – "The Conqueror Worm"

Non-fiction

 * Leon Battista Alberti – I Libri della famiglia
 * Anna Atkins – Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions
 * Paul Rudolf von Bilguer – Handbuch des Schachspiels (Handbook of Chess)
 * George Borrow – The Bible in Spain; or, the Journey, Adventures, and Imprisonment of an English-man in an Attempt to Circulate the Scriptures in the Peninsula
 * James Braid – Neurypnology: or the Rationale of Nervous Sleep
 * Thomas Carlyle – Past and Present
 * Marquis de Custine – La Russie en 1839 (Russia in 1839)
 * Benjamin Hall Kennedy – Elementary Latin Primer
 * Søren Kierkegaard (as Johannes de Silentio) – Fear and Trembling (Frygt og Bæven)
 * Thomas Babington Macaulay – Critical and Historical Essays
 * Moses Margoliouth – The Fundamental Principles of Modern Judaism Investigated
 * John Stuart Mill – A System of Logic
 * William H. Prescott – History of the Conquest of Mexico
 * John Ruskin – Modern Painters, vol. 1
 * Rev. J. M. Wainwright – Book of Common Prayer (1843 illustrated version)
 * Wei Yuan and others (comp.) – Illustrated Treatise on the Maritime Kingdoms (海國圖志, Hǎiguó Túzhì)

Births

 * January 2 – Gabriel Compayré, French scholar and politician (died 1913)
 * January 14 – Hans Forssell, Swedish historian (died 1901)
 * January 17 – Florence Montgomery, English novelist and children's writer (died 1923)
 * January 24 – Evald Tang Kristensen, Danish author and collector of folklore (died 1929)
 * January 28 – Mihkel Veske, Estonian poet and linguist (died 1890)
 * February 6 – Frederic W. H. Myers, British poet (died 1901)
 * February 24
 * Teófilo Braga, Portuguese poet, playwright and politician (died 1924)
 * Violet Fane (Mary Montgomerie Lamb), English novelist, poet and essayist (died 1905)
 * March 5 – Hugh Antoine d'Arcy, French writer (died 1925)
 * March 11 – Harald Høffding, Danish philosopher and theologian (died 1931)
 * March 29 – Paul Ferrier, French dramatist and librettist (died 1920)
 * March 30 – Florence Ashton Marshall, English composer and conductor, biographer of Handel (died 1922)
 * April 15
 * Elizabeth Boynton Harbert, American author, reformer, and philanthropist (died 1915)
 * Henry James, American-born fiction writer (died 1916)
 * April 25 – Constance Cary Harrison, American playwright and novelist (died 1920)
 * April 29 – Pedro Américo, Brazilian novelist, poet, scientist, artist, essayist, philosopher, politician and professor (died 1905)
 * May 3 – Edward Dowden, Irish poet and critic (died 1913)
 * May 10 – Benito Pérez Galdós, Spanish novelist (died 1920)
 * May 12 – Thomas William Rhys Davids, British linguist and scholar (died 1922)
 * May 25 – Christabel Rose Coleridge, English novelist and editor (died 1921)
 * June 9 – Bertha von Suttner, Austrian pacifist writer (died 1914)
 * June 26 – Paul Arène, French poet and author (died 1896)
 * July 5 – Mandell Creighton, English bishop and historian (died 1901)
 * August 9 – N. D. Popescu-Popnedea, Romanian novelist, folklorist, archivist and almanac compiler (died 1921)
 * September 26 – James Rice, English novelist (died 1882)
 * October 25 – Gleb Uspensky, Russian writer (died 1902)
 * November – Lucy M. Hall, American physician and writer (died 1907)
 * December 7 – Helena Nyblom, née Roed, Danish-born poet and writer of fairy tales (died 1926)
 * December 10 – Isabella Fyvie Mayo, Scottish poet, novelist, and reformer (died 1914)
 * December 21 – Thomas Bracken, Irish-born New Zealand poet (died 1898)
 * December 23 – Ada Langworthy Collier, American author (died 1919)
 * December 24 – Lydia Koidula, Estonian poet (died 1886)
 * December 29 – Princess Elisabeth of Wied ("Carmen Sylva"), German-born queen consort and writer (died 1916)
 * unknown dates
 * Mary Bathurst Deane, English novelist (died 1940)
 * Lillian Rozell Messenger, American poet (died 1921)

Deaths

 * January 11 – Francis Scott Key, American poet (born 1779)
 * February 10 – Richard Carlile, English writer and agitator for suffrage and freedom of the press (born 1790)
 * February 22 – Mary Hays, English feminist writer (born 1759)
 * March 21 – Robert Southey, English poet and Poet Laureate (born 1774)
 * May 12 – Charlotte von Kalb, German writer (born 1761)
 * May 19 – Charles James Apperley ("Nimrod"), English sporting writer (born 1777)
 * May 28 – Noah Webster, American lexicographer (born 1758)
 * June 6 – Friedrich Hölderlin, German poet, novelist, and dramatist (born 1770)
 * July 4 – John Basset, writer on Cornish mining (born 1791)
 * July 9 – Karoline Pichler, Austrian novelist (born 1769)
 * July 31 – William Thomas Lowndes, English bibliographer (born c.1798)
 * August 10 – Jakob Friedrich Fries, German philosopher (born 1773)
 * September 4 – Léopoldine Hugo, daughter of French novelist Victor Hugo (b. 1824)
 * October 21 – William Pinnock, English writer, publisher and bookseller (born 1782)
 * November 25 – Ellen Pickering, English novelist (born 1801 or 1802)
 * November 28 – József Ficzkó, Burgenland Croatian writer (born 1772)
 * December 11 – Casimir Delavigne, French poet and dramatist (born 1793)

Awards

 * Newdigate Prize – Matthew Arnold, "Cromwell"