# 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.

## New books
### 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 (Le Secret de 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