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.

New books

Fiction

*W. 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 oppen 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''
*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)
* 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"

References

{{Year in literature article categories

Years of the 19th century in literature