1841 in literature

Children

• Frederick Marryat
• Joseph Rushbrook, or The Poacher
• Masterman Ready, or the Wreck of the Pacific
• Agnes Strickland – Alda, the British Captive
• Hans Christian Andersen – Fairy Tales Told for Children. New Collection. Third Booklet (Eventyr, fortalte for Børn. Ny Samling. Tredie Hefte) comprising "Ole Lukoie" ("Ole Lukøje"), "The Rose Elf" ("Rosen-Alfen"), "The Swineherd" ("Svinedrengen") and "The Buckwheat" ("Boghveden")

Drama

• Dion Boucicault – London Assurance
• Robert Browning – Pippa Passes
• James Sheridan Knowles – Old Maids
• Mary Russell Mitford – Inez de Castro
• George Dibdin Pitt (adapted from Catherine Crowe) – Susan Hopley; or, The Vicissitudes of a Servant Girl
• Jules-Édouard Alboize de Pujol – Le Tribut des cent vierges
• Juliusz Słowacki – Fantazy (published posthumously in 1866)
• John Watkins – John Frost: a Chartist play

Poetry

• Mikhail Lermontov – The Demon: An Eastern Tale
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – Excelsior
• James Russell Lowell – A Year's Life
• Alexander Pushkin – The Bronze Horseman

Non-fiction

• George Borrow – The Zincali; or an Account of the Gypsies of Spain
• Thomas Carlyle – On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History
• Ralph Waldo Emerson – Essays
• Ludwig Feuerbach – Das Wesen des Christentums (The Essence of Christianity)
• Washington Irving – Biography and Poetical Remains of the Late Margaret Miller Davidson
• Søren Kierkegaard – On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates
• Edgar Allan Poe – "A Few Words on Secret Writing"
• Augustus Pugin – The True Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture

Births

• January 15 – Sarah Doudney, English novelist, hymnist and children's writer (died 1926)
• January 18 – Lucie Fulton Isaacs, American writer, philanthropist, suffragist (died 1916)
• February 28 – Jean Mounet-Sully, French actor (died 1904)
• March 21 – Mathilde Blind, German-born English poet (died 1896)
• March 31 – Iosif Vulcan, Romanian poet, playwright and novelist (died 1907)
• April 6 – Ivan Surikov, Russian poet (died 1898)
• April 18 – Georges de Peyrebrune (Mathilde-Marie Georgina Élisabeth Johnston of Pierrebrune), French novelist (died 1917)
• April 30 – Laura Jacinta Rittenhouse, American author and poet (died 1911)
• May 20 – Sara Louisa Oberholtzer, American poet and economist (died 1930)
• May 22 – Catulle Mendès, French poet (died 1909)
• June 19 – Hermann Eduard von Holst, German historian (died 1904)
• June 21 – Charitie Lees Smith, American hymnwriter (died 1923)
• July 4 – Susan Marr Spalding, American poet (died 1908)
• July 27 – Harriette A. Keyser, American author, industrial reformer (died 1936)
• August 3 – Juliana Horatia Ewing, English children's writer (died 1885)
• August 4 – William Henry Hudson, Argentinian-born English writer and naturalist (died 1922)
• August 18 – Robert Williams Buchanan, Scottish author (died 1901)
• September 20 – Walter Bradford Woodgate, English boating writer and oarsman (died 1920)
• September 24 – Kate Brownlee Sherwood, American poet, journalist, and translator (died 1914)
• September 27 – Aubertine Woodward Moore, American musician and writer (died 1929)
• October 6 – Clement Scott, English critic and travel writer (died 1916)
• November 3 – Isabella Macdonald Alden, American author (died 1930)
• November 8 – John Charles Dent, English-born Canadian journalist and historian (died 1888)
• November 13 – William Black, Scottish novelist (died 1898)
• December 29 – Henrietta A. Bingham, American writer and editor (died 1877)
• unknown dates
• Annie Somers Gilchrist (1841-1912), American author (died 1912)
• Emily Pitts Stevens, American editor, publisher, educator, and activist (died 1906)
• Emily Elizabeth Veeder, American novelist and poet (died after 1896)
• probable – Liu Qingyun (闹元宵), Chinese playwright and poet (died 1900 or later)

Deaths

• January 12 – Märta Helena Reenstierna, Swedish diarist (born 1753)
• February 21 – Dorothea Tieck, German translator (born 1799)
• April 8 – James Browne, Scottish man of letters (born 1793)
• April 16 – Frederick Reynolds, English playwright (born 1764)
• May 7 – Thomas Barnes, English editor of The Times (born 1785)
• May 20 – Joseph Blanco White, Spanish-born English poet and theologian (born 1775)
• July 27 – Mikhail Lermontov, Russian poet (duel, born 1814)
• August 11 – Johann Friedrich Herbart, German philosopher (born 1776)
• September 16 – Thomas John Dibdin, English playwright (born 1771)
• October 31 – Georg Anton Friedrich Ast, German philologist and philosopher (born 1778)
• December 12 – Denis-Luc Frayssinous, French theologian and bishop (born 1765)

References