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 (藤村操, born 1886) 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 (Italy).
 * 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 (d. 1870) 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.

Fiction

 * Pío Baroja – El Mayorazgo de Labraz (Lord of Labraz, second of La Tierra Vasca – The Basque Country trilogy, 1900–1909)
 * Ioan A. Bassarabescu – Nuvele
 * Thio Tjin Boen – Tjerita Oeij Se
 * René Boylesve – Enfant à la Balustrade
 * Samuel Butler (died 1902) – The Way of All Flesh
 * Erskine Childers – The Riddle of the Sands
 * Joseph Conrad – Typhoon and Other Stories (U. K. book publication)
 * Joseph Conrad and Ford Madox Hueffer – Romance
 * Florence Converse – Long Will
 * Grazia Deledda – Elias Portolu
 * Isabelle Eberhardt – Trimardeur (serialization begins)
 * 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 (died 1902) – The Pit
 * Marmaduke Pickthall – Said the Fisherman
 * Bram Stoker – The Jewel of Seven Stars
 * Jules Verne – Travel Scholarships (Bourses de voyage)
 * Mary Augusta Ward – Lady Rose's Daughter
 * Émile Zola – Vérité
 * Jerzy Żuławski – Na Srebrnym Globie (On the Silver Globe, first in the Trylogia Księżycowa – Lunar Trilogy)

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 (book publication)
 * Kate Douglas Wiggin – Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

Drama

 * Dusé Mohamed Ali – The Jew's Revenge
 * Jacinto Benavente – La noche del sábado (Saturday Night)
 * 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 (My son, the doctor)
 * George Bernard Shaw – Man and Superman (published)
 * J. M. Synge – In the Shadow of the Glen
 * Pierre Wolff – The Secret of Polichinelle
 * Stanisław Wyspiański – Wyzwolenie (Liberation)

Poetry

 * Giovanni Pascoli – Canti di Castelvecchio
 * Thomas Traherne (died 1674) – 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 (book publication)
 * G. E. Moore – Principia Ethica
 * John Morley – The Life of Gladstone
 * Alois Riegl – Der moderne Denkmalkultus, sein Wesen, seine Entstehung (The Modern Cult of Monuments, Its Character and Origin)
 * W. B. Yeats – Ideas of Good and Evil (essays)

Births

 * January 10 – E. Arnot Robertson, English novelist and broadcaster (died 1961)
 * February 11 – Alan Paton, South African novelist and activist (died 1988)
 * February 13 – Georges Simenon, Belgian crime writer (died 1989)
 * February 17 – Sadegh Hedayat, Iranian-born novelist (suicide 1951)
 * February 21
 * Anaïs Nin, French-American novelist and diarist (died 1977)
 * Raymond Queneau, French poet (died 1976)
 * February 22 – Morley Callaghan, Canadian writer (died 1990)
 * February 24
 * Vladimir Bartol, Slovene author (died 1967)
 * Irène Némirovsky, Russian-born French novelist (died 1942)
 * June 8 – Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgian novelist (died 1987)
 * June 18 – Raymond Radiguet, French author (died 1923)
 * June 25 – George Orwell, English novelist and journalist (died 1950)
 * July 3 – Oliver Stonor, English novelist (died 1987)
 * July 10 – John Wyndham, English science fiction writer (died 1969)
 * September 5 – János Kemény, American-born Transylvanian Hungarian writer (died 1971)
 * September 9 – Edward Upward, English novelist and short story writer (died 2009)
 * September 10 – Cyril Connolly, English critic and writer (died 1974)
 * September 14 – Mart Raud, Estonian poet, playwright and writer (died 1980)
 * October 17
 * G. E. Trevelyan, English novelist (died 1941)
 * Nathanael West, American novelist and screenwriter (died 1940)
 * October 28 – Evelyn Waugh, English novelist and critic (died 1966)
 * December 6 (November 23 OS) – Gaito Gazdanov, Russian-born novelist (died 1971)
 * December 10
 * Mary Norton, English children's writer (died 1992)
 * William Plomer (Robert Pagan), South African-born novelist, poet and literary editor (died 1973)
 * December 13 – Todhunter Ballard, American novelist (died 1980)
 * December 24 – Nancy Brysson Morrison, Scottish novelist (died 1986)
 * December 29 – Sergiu Dan, Romanian novelist and journalist (died 1976)
 * Uncertain dates – Kathleen Lindsay, prolific English-born romance novelist (died 1973)

Deaths

 * January 22 – Augustus Hare, English biographer and travel writer (born 1834)
 * February 8 – Ada Ellen Bayly, English novelist (born 1857)
 * March 4 – Joseph Henry Shorthouse, English novelist (born 1834)
 * March 6 – Gaston Paris, French literary critic and scholar (born 1839)
 * March 8 – Josefina Wettergrund, Swedish writer (born 1830)
 * March 9 – Minnie Mary Lee, American author of poems, stories, sketches and novels (born 1825)
 * March 14 – Ernest Legouvé, French dramatist (born 1807)
 * April 28 — Frances Augusta Conant, American journalist (born 1841)
 * April 29 – Paul Du Chaillu, French American travel writer (born c. 1831)
 * May 12 – Richard Henry Stoddard, American critic and poet (born 1825)
 * May 24 – Max O'Rell (Léon Paul Blouet), French journalist (born 1847)
 * June 12 – Claymoor, Romanian fashion and entertainment critic (peptic ulcer; born c. 1842)
 * July 11 – W. E. Henley, English poet (tuberculosis, born 1847)
 * August 31 – William Hastie, Scottish theologian (born 1842)
 * September 1 – Charles Bernard Renouvier, French philosopher (born 1815)
 * October 4 – Otto Weininger, Austrian philosopher (suicide, born 1880)
 * November 1 – Theodor Mommsen, German classical scholar and historian (born 1817)
 * November 11 — Lavilla Esther Allen, American author (born 1834)
 * November 19 – Hugh Stowell Scott (Henry Seton Merriman), English novelist (born 1862)
 * December 28 – George Gissing, English novelist (emphysema, born 1857)

Awards

 * Prix Goncourt: John Antoine Nau for Force ennemie
 * Nobel Prize for Literature: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson