1821 in literature

• May – Percy Bysshe Shelley's Queen Mab: a philosophical poem (1813) is distributed by a pirate publisher in London, leading to prosecution by the Society for the Prevention of Vice. • August 4 – Atkinson & Alexander publish The Saturday Evening Post for the first time as a weekly newspaper in the United States. • unknown dates • James Ballantyne begins publishing his ''Novelist's Library'' in Edinburgh edited by Sir Walter Scott. • In the first known obscenity case in the United States, a Massachusetts court outlaws the John Cleland novel Fanny Hill (1748). The publisher, Peter Holmes, is convicted of printing a "lewd and obscene" novel. • Sunthorn Phu is imprisoned and begins his epic poem Phra Aphai Mani. ==New books==

Fiction '' by Thomas Lawrence. Scott's historical novel Kenilworth was published in 1821. • James Fenimore Cooper – The Spy • Pierce Egan – Life in London; Boxiana Vol. III • John Galt • Annals of the Parish • The Ayrshire Legatees • Thomas Gaspey – Calthorpe • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – ''Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years (Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre)'' • Ann Hatton – Lovers and Friends • Hannah Maria Jones – Gretna Green • John Gibson Lockhart – Valerius • Charles Nodier – Smarra • Anna Maria Porter – The Village of Mariendorpt • Jane Porter – The Scottish Chiefs • Sir Walter Scott – Kenilworth Children • Maria Hack – Harry Beaufoy; or the Pupil of Nature • Thomas Love Peacock – Maid Marian Drama • John Banim and Richard Lalor Sheil – Damon and Pythias • Lord Byron • Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice (published & performed) • Sardanapalus: a tragedy; The Two Foscari: a tragedy; Cain: a mystery (published together) • Alfred Bunn –Kenilworth • Barry Cornwall – Mirandola • Alexandre-Vincent Pineux Duval – Le Faux Bonhomme • Aleksander Fredro – Pan Geldhab (Mr. Gelhab) • Franz Grillparzer – Das goldene Vliess (The Golden Fleece trilogy) • James Haynes – Conscience • Heinrich von Kleist (died 1811) – The Prince of Homburg (Prinz Friedrich von Homburg oder die Schlacht bei Fehrbellin, first performance, in abridged version as Die Schlacht von Fehrbellin; completed 1810) Poetry • Lord Byron – Irish Avatar • Heinrich Heine – Poems • Alessandro Manzoni – Il Cinque Maggio (May 5) • Alexander Pushkin – The Gabrieliad • Percy Bysshe Shelley – Adonaïs Non-fiction • James Burney – An Essay, by Way of Lecture, on the Game of Whist • Owen Chase – Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex • William Cobbett – The American Gardener • George Grote – Statement of the Question of Parliamentary Reform • William Hazlitt – Table-Talk • James Mill – Elements of Political Economy • Robert Owen – Report to the County of Lanark, of a plan for relieving public distress and removing discontent • Thomas De Quincey (anonymously) – Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (serialisation in The London Magazine) • John Roberton – Kalogynomia, or the Laws of Female Beauty • Robert Southey – Life of Cromwell ==Births==

• February 22 – Athalia Schwartz, Danish writer, journalist and educator (died 1871) • March 15 – William Milligan, Scottish theologian (died 1893) • March 19 – Richard Francis Burton, English polymath (died 1890) • March 20 – Ned Buntline (Edward Zane Carroll Judson Sr.), American publisher, dime novelist and publicist (died 1886) • March 25 – Isabella Banks, English poet and novelist (died 1897) • April 9 – Charles Baudelaire, French poet (died 1867) • May 8 – Charlotte Maria Tucker, English children's writer (died 1893) • May 11 – Grigore Sturdza, Moldavian and Romanian adventurer, literary sponsor and philosopher (died 1901) • June 30 – William Hepworth Dixon, English historian, traveler and journal editor (died 1879) • July 21 – Vasile Alecsandri, Romanian patriot, poet, dramatist, politician and diplomat (died 1890) • October 30 – Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russian novelist (died 1881) • November 28 – Nikolai Alekseevich Nekrasov, Russian poet, writer and critic (died 1877) • September 21 – Aurora Ljungstedt, Swedish horror writer (died 1908) • September 24 – Cyprian Norwid Polish poet (died 1883) • December 1 – Jane C. Bonar, Scottish hymnwriter (died 1884) • December 6 – Dora Greenwell, English poet (died 1882) • December 12 – Gustave Flaubert, French novelist (died 1880) ==Deaths==

• January 7 – Anne Hunter, Scottish poet and salonnière (born 1742) • January 14 – Jens Zetlitz, Norwegian poet (born 1761) • February 23 – John Keats, English poet (tuberculosis, born 1795) • February 26 – Joseph de Maistre, Savoyard philosopher (born 1753) • March 17 – Louis-Marcelin de Fontanes, French poet (born 1757) • April 14 – Susan Carnegie, writer and founder of the first public asylum in Scotland (born 1743) • April 16 – Thomas Scott, English cleric and religious writer (born 1747) • May 2 – Hester Thrale (Mrs Piozzi), English diarist and arts patron (born 1741) • May 21 – John Jones (Jac Glan-y-gors), Welsh poet and satirist (born 1766) • May 22 – Johann Georg Heinrich Feder, German philosopher (born 1740) • June 15 – John Ballantyne, publisher (born 1774) • August 1 – Elizabeth Inchbald, English novelist and dramatist (born 1753) • August 24 – John William Polidori, English physician, writer (born 1795) (suicide) • November 17 – James Burney, English rear-admiral and naval writer (born 1750) • November – Richard Fenton, poet and author (born 1747) ==Awards==

• Chancellor's Gold Medal and Newdigate Prize – George Howard ==References==