1846 in literature

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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1846.

Events

One of the year's least successful publications

• January 3 – American author Edgar Allan Poe prints the final edition of the Broadway Journal, a journal he owned for only a few months, with the final issue dated this day. Poe also publishes "The Philosophy of Composition".
• January 15 – Fyodor Dostoevsky's first original novel, Poor Folk (Бедные люди, Bednye Lyudi), is published in the St. Petersburg Collection.
• January 21 – First publication of The Daily News, edited by Charles Dickens, in London. After 17 issues Dickens hands over the editorship to his friend John Forster. It continues until 1930.
• c. May 22 – The Brontë sisters' first published work, the collection Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, is issued in London. It sells just two copies in the first year.
• June 27 – Charlotte Brontë completes the original manuscript of her novel The Professor; it is offered to several publishers this year but rejected.
• August 15 – Inauguration of Scott Monument to Sir Walter Scott in Edinburgh (Scotland).
• September 12 – Poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning marry privately in St Marylebone Parish Church, London, departing for the continent a week later.
• October 1 – Serial publication of Charles Dickens's Dombey and Son begins.
• November 21 – The String of Pearls: a Romance, probably written by James Malcolm Rymer and Thomas Peckett Prest, begins serialization in Britain, the first literary appearance of Sweeney Todd.
• Mary Howitt's Wonderful Stories for Children is the first English translation of works by Hans Christian Andersen published in book format.
• Isaac D. Baker and Charles Scribner form the New York City publisher Baker & Scribner, predecessor of Charles Scribner's Sons.

New books

• Honoré de Balzac – Cousin Bette (La Cousine Bette)
• Edward George Bulwer-Lytton – The Children of the Night
• James Fenimore Cooper – The Redskins
• Charles Dickens
  • The Battle of Life (novella)
  • Dombey and Son (serialization begins)
• Fyodor Dostoevsky
  • The Double: A Petersburg Poem (Двойник, Dvoynik; novella)
  • Poor Folk (Бедные люди, Bednye Lyudi)
• Alexandre Dumas, père
  • Le Chevalier de Maison-Rouge ("The Knight of the Maison-Rouge: A Novel of Marie Antoinette")
  • The Count of Monte Cristo (Le Comte de Monte-Cristo, serialization concluded and first English translation)
  • La Dame de Montsoreau
  • Mémoires d'un médecin: Joseph Balsamo ("Memoirs of a Physician: vol. 1, Joseph Balsamo")
• Dmitry Grigorovich – The Village (Деревня, Derevnya)
• Nathaniel Hawthorne – Mosses from an Old Manse
• Mór Jókai – Weekdays (Hétköznapok)
• Frederick Marryat – The Privateersman
• Herman Melville – Typee
• George Sand – La Mare au diable ("The Devil's Pond")

New drama

• Paul Bocage – Échec et mat
• Carolina Coronado – El cuadro de la esperanza
• Eugène Marin Labiche and Auguste Lefranc – Frisette
• Martins Pena – first performances
  • A Barriga do Meu Tio
  • Os Ciúmes de um Pedestre, ou O Terrível Capitão do Mato
  • As Desgraças de uma Criança
  • Os Meirinhos
  • Um Segredo de Estado
  • O Usurário
• Joseph Isidore Samson – La famille poisson

Poetry

• Gottfried Keller – Gedichte
• Edward Lear – Book of Nonsense
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – The Belfry of Bruges

Non-fiction

• Mary Anne Atwood (as Θυος Μαθος) – Early Magnetism in its higher relations to Humanity
• Charles Dickens – Pictures from Italy
• George Grote – A History of Greece (publication begins)
• Søren Kierkegaard – Concluding Unscientific Postscript to Philosophical Fragments (Afsluttende uvidenskabelig Efterskrift til de philosophiske Smuler)
• David Strauss – The Life of Jesus, Critically Examined, translated by George Eliot from Das Leben Jesu, kritisch bearbeitet
• Theodor Waitz – Grundlegung der Psychologie ("Foundation of Psychology")
• William Whewell – Elements of Morality

Births

• March 17 – Kate Greenaway, English book illustrator and writer (died 1901)
• March 25 – Helen Zimmern, German-born English writer and translator (died 1934)
• April 4 – Comte de Lautreamont, French poet and writer (died 1870)
• April 24 – Marcus Clarke, Australian novelist and poet (died 1881)
• May 5 – Henryk Sienkiewicz, Polish novelist (died 1916)
• May 25 – Naim Frashëri, Albanian poet (died 1900)
• August 5 – Alvilde Prydz, Norwegian novelist (died 1922)
• October 21 – Edmondo De Amicis, Italian novelist, journalist, poet and short-story writer (died 1908)

Deaths

• January 6 – Lewis Goldsmith, Anglo-French journalist (born c. 1763)
• February 9 – Henry Gally Knight, English writer and traveler (born 1786)
• March 10 – Harriette Wilson, English memoirist (born 1786)
• June 24 – Jan Frans Willems, Flemish poet and political activist (born 1793)
• July 12 – Charlotte Elizabeth Tonna, English novelist (born 1790)
• September 4 – Victor-Joseph Étienne de Jouy, French dramatist (born 1764)
• November 23 – George Darley, Irish poet, novelist, and critic (born 1795)
• December 13 – Pasquale Galluppi, Italian philosopher (born 1770)

Awards

• Chancellor's Gold Medal - Edward Henry Bickersteth