1844 in literature

This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1844.

Events

 * January 4 – Swedish-language newspaper Saima, founded by J. V. Snellman, is published for the first time, in Finland.
 * February 5 – The first three of many theatrical adaptations of A Christmas Carol open in London.
 * March–July – Alexandre Dumas père's historical adventure story The Three Musketeers (Les Trois Mousquetaires) is serialised in the Paris newspaper Le Siècle.
 * August 28 – Alexandre Dumas père's near-recent historical adventure story The Count of Monte Cristo (Le Comte de Monte-Cristo) begins serialization in the Paris newspaper Journal des débats, and continues through to January 1846. Book publication also begins this year.
 * October – George W. M. Reynolds begins publication of the bestselling "penny dreadful" city mysteries series The Mysteries of London.
 * Autumn – Margaret Fuller joins Horace Greeley's New-York Tribune as literary critic, becoming the first full-time female book reviewer in American journalism.
 * December 2 – Emily Brontë writes the poem "A Death-Scene".
 * unknown date – The first volumes of Patrologia Latina, a 217-volume collection of works in Latin, are published in Paris by Jacques Paul Migne. These include the writings of Tertullian and Cyprian, among other authors.

Fiction

 * José de Alencar – Os contrabandistas (unpublished, lost)
 * Honoré de Balzac – Les Paysans
 * Charles Dickens
 * The Chimes
 * Martin Chuzzlewit (serial publication ends)
 * Benjamin Disraeli – Coningsby
 * Alexandre Dumas
 * The Count of Monte Cristo
 * The Three Musketeers
 * Charles Lever – Tom Burke of Ours
 * Joaquim Manuel de Macedo – A Moreninha
 * Edgar Allan Poe – short stories
 * "The Angel of the Odd"
 * "The Premature Burial"
 * G. W. M. Reynolds – The Mysteries of London
 * Eugène Sue – The Wandering Jew (Le Juif Errant)
 * William Makepeace Thackeray – The Luck of Barry Lyndon
 * Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna – The Wrongs of Women
 * Charlotte Mary Yonge – Abbeychurch, or, Self Control and Self Conceit

Children and young people

 * Hans Christian Andersen – New Fairy Tales. First Volume. Second Collection (Nye Eventyr. Første Bind. Anden Samling) comprising "The Fir-Tree" ("Grantræet") and "The Snow Queen" ("Snedronningen")
 * Heinrich Hoffmann – Struwwelpeter
 * Frederick Marryat – Settlers in Canada
 * Elizabeth Missing Sewell – Amy Herbert

Drama

 * Émile Augier – La Ciguë
 * Dimitrija Demeter – Teuta
 * Gustav Freytag – Die Brautfahrt, oder Kunz von der Rosen
 * Catherine Gore – Quid Pro Quo
 * Christian Friedrich Hebbel – Maria Magdalene
 * William H. Smith – The Drunkard
 * José Zorilla – Don Juan Tenorio

Poetry

 * Elizabeth Barrett Browning – Poems
 * Lydia Maria Child – "Over the River and Through the Wood"
 * Heinrich Heine – Neue Gedichte
 * James Russell Lowell – Poems
 * Coventry Patmore – Poems

Non-fiction

 * Robert Chambers (anonymously) – Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation
 * Joseph Ennemoser – Geschichte der Magie (History of Magic)
 * Søren Kierkegaard (as Vigilius Haufniensis) – The Concept of Anxiety (Begrebet Angest)
 * Karl Marx – "On the Jewish Question" ("Zur Judenfrage")
 * John Stuart Mill – Essays on Some Unsettled Questions of Political Economy
 * William Smith (editor) – Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
 * Arthur Penrhyn Stanley – Life of Arnold
 * Max Stirner – The Ego and Its Own (Der Einzige und sein Eigentum)
 * Henry Fox Talbot – The Pencil of Nature (first book illustrated with photographs from a camera)

Births

 * January 2 – Emeline Harriet Howe, American writer and social activist (died 1934)
 * January 8 – Sarah Carmichael Harrell, American educator, reformer, and writer (died 1929)
 * January 14 – Susan F. Ferree, American writer and activist (died 1910)
 * February 25 – Alice Diehl (née Mangold), English novelist and concert pianist (died 1912)
 * March 19 – Minna Canth, Finnish writer and social activist (died 1897)
 * March 30 – Paul Verlaine, French lyric poet (died 1896)
 * April 2 – George Haven Putnam, American author, publisher (died 1930)
 * April 16 – Anatole France, French writer (died 1924)
 * April 12 – Mollie Evelyn Moore Davis, American poet, writer, and editor (died 1909)
 * May 9 – Sarah Newcomb Merrick, American teacher, writer, and physician (unknown year of death)
 * June 28 – John Boyle O'Reilly, Irish-born poet, journalist and fiction writer (died 1890)
 * July 8 – Janet Milne Rae, Scottish novelist (died 1933)
 * July 21 – Matilda Maranda Crawford, American-Canadian writer and poet (died 1920)
 * July 22 – William Archibald Spooner, English academic and instigator of spoonerisms (died 1930)
 * July 28 – Gerard Manley Hopkins, English poet (died 1889)
 * August 29 – Edward Carpenter, English socialist poet and philosopher (died 1929)
 * September 9 – Maurice Thompson, American novelist (died 1901)
 * October 1 – H. Maria George Colby, American author of novelettes and juvenile literature (died 1910)
 * October 6 – Margret Holmes Bates, American novelist and poet (died 1927)
 * October 15 – Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (died 1900)
 * October 22 or 23 – Sarah Bernhardt, French actress (died 1923)
 * October 23
 * Robert Bridges, English poet (died 1930)
 * Laura Rosamond White, American author, poet, editor (died 1922)
 * October 25 – Joseph Marmette, Canadian novelist and historian (died 1895)
 * October 27 – Klas Pontus Arnoldson, Swedish writer and pacifist (died 1916)
 * November 21 – Ada Cambridge, English/Australian writer and poet (died 1926)
 * December 13 – Catharine H. T. Avery, American author, editor, and educator (died 1911)
 * December 27 – Lisa Anne Fletcher, American poet and correspondent (died 1905)
 * unknown dates
 * Mrs. Lovett Cameron (Caroline "Emily" Sharp), English romantic novelist (died 1921)
 * Evelyn Whitaker, English children's writer (died 1929)

Deaths

 * January 4 – Maria Hack, English educational writer (born 1777)
 * January 27 – Charles Nodier, French novelist (born 1780)
 * February 11 – Tamenaga Shunsui, Japanese novelist (born 1790)
 * February 12 – Jan Nepomuk Štěpánek, Czech dramatist (born 1783)
 * May 2 – William Thomas Beckford, English novelist and travel writer (born 1760)
 * June 11 – Urban Jarnik, Slovene poet and historian (born 1784)
 * June 15 – Thomas Campbell, Scottish poet (born 1777)
 * July 11 – Evgeny Baratynsky, Russian poet and philosopher (born 1800)
 * August 14 – Henry Cary, Gibraltar-born Irish author and translator (born 1772)
 * September 18 – John Sterling, Scottish novelist and poet (born 1806)
 * October 28 – Sándor Kisfaludy, Hungarian poet and dramatist (born 1772)
 * November 4 – Barbara Hofland, English children's and schoolbook author (born 1770)
 * November 21 – Ivan Krylov, Russian fabulist (born 1769)
 * December 27 – John Caradja, Greek Prince of Wallachia, translator and theatrical promoter (asthma, born 1754)

Awards

 * Chancellor's Gold Medal – Edward Bickersteth, "The Tower of London"
 * Newdigate Prize – Evgeny Baratynsky