This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1902.

• January 5
  • The political drama Danton's Death (Dantons Tod, completed and published in 1835) by Georg Büchner (died 1837), is first performed, at the Belle-Alliance-Theater in Berlin by the Vereins Neue Freie Volksbühne.^[1]
  • George Bernard Shaw's controversial 1893 play Mrs. Warren's Profession receives its first performance at a private London club.^[2]
• January 23 – The first example of a Sherlockian game – a study of inconsistencies of dates in Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles (the serialisation of which in The Strand Magazine concludes in April) by publisher Frank Sidgwick – appears in The Cambridge Review.^[3]
• April – Mark Twain buys a home in Tarrytown, New York. On June 4 he receives an honorary doctorate of literature from the University of Missouri.
• June 16 – Bertrand Russell writes to Gottlob Frege about the mathematical problem to become known as Russell's paradox.^[4]
• July 1 – The Romanian language literary review Luceafărul begins publication in Budapest.
• August 6 – În sat sau la oraș (In the Village or in the City), by the Romanian peasant leader Constantin Dobrescu-Argeș, is performed in his native Mușătești, in front of an audience comprising Education Minister Spiru Haret^[5] and some 2,000 villagers.^[6]
• September 9 – P. G. Wodehouse leaves his job at the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company in London to become a freelance writer. On September 18, his first published novel, the St. Austin's school story The Pothunters, is published in London by A & C Black, as a truncation of the version in their Public School Magazine from January to March.

• Early October – Beatrix Potter's self-illustrated children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit (originally published privately a year earlier) appears in its first trade edition with Frederick Warne & Co in London. It sells 28,000 copies by the end of the year.^[7]
• October 5 – Thousands attend the funeral of the French novelist Émile Zola at the Cimetière de Montmartre, Paris. They include Alfred Dreyfus, given special permission by Mme Zola to attend.^[8]
• November 4 – J. M. Barrie's comedy The Admirable Crichton is first performed, at the Duke of York's Theatre in London, starring H. B. Irving, Henry Kemble and Irene Vanbrugh. It runs for 828 performances.
• December 5 – Leo Tolstoy's drama The Power of Darkness («Власть тьмы», Vlast' t'my, written in 1886) has its Russian-language première at the Moscow Art Theatre by Konstantin Stanislavski with some success, although Stanislavski is self-critical.^[9]
• December 18 – Maxim Gorky's drama The Lower Depths – Scenes from Russian Life («На дне», Na dne) is first performed, at the Moscow Art Theatre, as a first major success for Konstantin Stanislavsky as director and star.
• unknown date – The poet Ștefan Petică's cycle Fecioara în alb is published, marking a maturing of Romanian Symbolism.^[10]

• January 1 - Muhammad Zaki Abd al-Qadir, Egyptian journalist and writer (d. 1981) ^[22]
• January 5 – Stella Gibbons, English novelist (died 1989)
• January 20 – Nazim Hikmet, Turkish lyricist and dramatist (died 1963)
• January 30 – Nikolaus Pevsner, German-born architectural historian (died 1983)
• February 1 – Langston Hughes, African-American poet and novelist (died 1967)
• February 16 – Ion Călugăru, Romanian novelist, short story writer and journalist (died 1956)
• February 19 – Kay Boyle, American writer, educator and political activist (died 1992)
• February 27 – John Steinbeck, American novelist and journalist (died 1968)
• March 10 – Stefan Inglot, Polish historian (died 1994)
• March 29 – Marcel Aymé, French novelist and short-story writer (died 1967)^[23]
• April 2 – Jan Tschichold, German-born typographer (died 1974)
• April 6 – Julien Torma, French poet and dramatist (died 1933)
• April 9 – Lord David Cecil, English literary critic and biographer (died 1986)
• April 23 – Halldór Laxness, Icelandic novelist (died 1998)^[24]
• June 5 – Hugo Huppert, Austrian poet, writer and translator (died 1982)
• July 10 – Nicolás Guillén, Afro-Cuban poet (died 1989)
• July 8 – Gwendolyn B. Bennett, African American writer and artist (died 1981)
• July 27 - Yaroslav Halan, Ukrainian playwright, translator, and publicist (died 1949)
• August 15 – Katharine Brush, American short story writer (died 1952)
• August 16 – Georgette Heyer, English novelist (died 1974)^[25]
• August 19 – Ogden Nash, American poet and humorist (died 1971)^[26]
• August 24
  • Felipe Alfau, Spanish-American fiction writer, poet and translator (died 1999)
  • Fernand Braudel, French historian (died 1985)
• September 21 – Luis Cernuda, Spanish poet (died 1963)
• September 25 – Ernst von Salomon, German writer (died 1972)
• October 13 – Arna Bontemps, African American poet (died 1973)
• October 23 – Dadie Rylands (George Rylands), English Shakespeare scholar (died 1999)
• October 26 – Beryl Markham (Beryl Clutterbuck), English-born Kenyan adventurer and memoirist (died 1986)
• October 31 – Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Brazilian poet (died 1987)
• November 1 – Nordahl Grieg, Norwegian poet and author (killed in action 1943)
• November 2
  • Hu Feng (胡风), Chinese novelist (died 1985)
  • Gyula Illyés, Hungarian author (died 1983)
• November 29 – Carlo Levi, Italian writer (died 1975)
• December 7 – N. Crevedia, Romanian poet, novelist and journalist (died 1978)
• December 11 – Dan Simonescu, Romanian literary historian and bibliographer (died 1993)
• December 20 – Jolán Földes, Hungarian novelist and playwright (died 1963)^[27]

• January 7 – Wilhelm Hertz, German poet and translator (born 1835)
• April 6 – Gleb Uspensky, Russian writer (born 1843)^[28]
• April 20 – Frank R. Stockton, American writer and humorist (born 1834)
• April 21 – Ethna Carbery, Irish poet (born 1866)^[29]
• April 27 – Nancy H. Adsit, American art lecturer, art educator, and writer of art literature (born 1825)^{[citation needed]}
• May 5 – Bret Harte, American author and poet (born 1836)^[30]
• May 6
  • Martha Perry Lowe, American social activist and organizer (born 1829)
  • Emma Augusta Sharkey, American dime novelist (born 1858)^[31]
• May 17/18 — Harriet Abbott Lincoln Coolidge, American philanthropist, author and reformer (b. 1849)
• June 10 – Jacint Verdaguer, Catalan poet (born 1845)^[32]
• June 18 – Samuel Butler, English novelist (born 1835)^[33]
• July 10 – Annie French Hector (pseudonym Mrs Alexander), Irish-born novelist (born 1825)
• August 31
• August 31
  • Grace Hinsdale, American religious writer (born 1832)
  • Mathilde Wesendonck, German poet (born 1828)^[34]
• September 11 – Ernst Dümmler, German historian (born 1830)^[35]
• September 19 – Masaoka Shiki (正岡 子規), Japanese haiku poet (born 1867)^[36]
• September 29
  • William McGonagall, Scottish doggerel poet (born 1825)^[37]
  • Émile Zola, French novelist (carbon monoxide poisoning, born 1840)^[38]
• October 7 – George Rawlinson, English historian (born 1812)
• October 13 – John George Bourinot, Canadian historian (born 1836)
• October 25 – Frank Norris, American novelist (peritonitis, born 1870)^[39]
• October 31 – Cornélie Huygens, Dutch writer, social democrat and feminist (born 1848)^[40]
• November 16 – G. A. Henty, English historical novelist (born 1832)^[41]
• December 26 – Mary Hartwell Catherwood, American author and poet (born 1849)^[42]

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen