This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1903.

• 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.^[1]
• 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).^[2]
• 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.^[3]

• 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)^[5]
• July 10 – John Wyndham, English science fiction writer (died 1969)^[6]
• 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 29 – Sergiu Dan, Romanian novelist and journalist (died 1976)
• Uncertain dates – Kathleen Lindsay, prolific English-born romance novelist (died 1973)

• 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)^[7]
• 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 10 – Constantin Dobrescu-Argeș, Romanian journalist, playwright and peasant activist (paralysis, born 1856)
• December 28 – George Gissing, English novelist (emphysema, born 1857)

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