See also: 1838 in literature, other events of 1839, 1840 in literature, list of years in literature.

Events

New books

• The Charterhouse of Parma - Stendhal
• Deerbrook - Harriet Martineau
• Diary in America - Frederick Marryat
• The Fall of the House of Usher - Edgar Allan Poe
• ''Grace Darling; or, the Heroine of the Ferne Islands - George W. M. Reynolds
• Jack Sheppard - William Harrison Ainsworth
• Marianna - Jules Sandeau
• Nicholas Nickleby - Charles Dickens
• The Phantom Ship - Frederick Marryat
• The Voyage of the Beagle - Charles Darwin

Poetry

• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - Hyperion; Voices of the Night

Non-fiction

• Louis Blanc - L'Organisation du Travail
• Jared Sparks - Life of Washington

Births

• January 7 - Ouida, novelist (+ 1908)
• February 1 - James Herne, dramatist (+ 1901)
• February 22 - Francis Pharcellus Church, American editor and publisher (+ 1906)
• April 18 - Henry Kendall, Australian poet (+ 1882)
• June 21 - Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Brazilian poet and novelist (+ 1909)
• August 4 - Walter Horatio Pater, English writer (+ 1894)
• August 9 - Gaston Paris, philologist (+ 1903)
• August 25 - Bret Harte (+ 1902)
• September 10 - Charles Peirce, philosopher (+ 1914)
• November 29 - Ludwig Anzengruber, dramatist (+ 1889)

Deaths

• April 11 - John Galt, novelist
• May 17 - Archibald Alison (Scottish author)
• May 21 - José María Heredia y Campuzano, Cuban poet
• September 4 - Hermann Olshausen, theologian

Awards

1839 books

1839 en littérature | Kulturåret 1839