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

• 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.^[1]
• 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.^[2]
• 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.^[3][4][5]
• 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.^[6][7][8][9]
• 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.^[10]
• Christmas – Thomas Hood's poem "The Song of the Shirt" appears in Punch.^[11]
• 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.^[12]

• 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^[13]
• Catherine Gore – The Banker's Wife
• Léon Gozlan – Aristide Froissart^[14]
• Victor Hugo – Les Burgraves
• Søren Kierkegaard – Diary of a Seducer (literary novel included in Either/Or)
• John Neal — Ruth Elder^[15]
• Frederick Marryat – Monsieur Violet
• Eugène Sue – The Mysteries of Paris
• Robert Smith Surtees – Handley Cross
• Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna – Perils of the Nation

• 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")

• 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

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

• 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)

• January 2 – Gabriel Compayré, French scholar and politician (died 1913)^[16]
• 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)^[17]
  • Violet Fane (Mary Montgomerie Lamb), English novelist, poet and essayist (died 1905)
• March 5 – Hugh Antoine d'Arcy, French writer (died 1925)^[18]
• March 11 – Harald Høffding, Danish philosopher and theologian (died 1931)
• March 29 – Paul Ferrier, French dramatist and librettist (died 1920)^[19]
• 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)^[20]
• 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)^[21]
• May 12 – Thomas William Rhys Davids, British linguist and scholar (died 1922)^[22]
• May 25 – Christabel Rose Coleridge, English novelist and editor (died 1921)
• June 9 – Bertha von Suttner, Austrian pacifist writer (died 1914)^[23]
• June 26 – Paul Arène, French poet and author (died 1896)^[24]
• 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)^[25]
• 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)^[26]
• December 24 – Lydia Koidula, Estonian poet (died 1886)^[27]
• 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)^[28]

• January 11 – Francis Scott Key, American poet (born 1779)^[29]
• 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)^[30]
• 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)^[31]
• 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)

• Newdigate Prize – Matthew Arnold, "Cromwell"