1913 in literature

• January – Acmeist poetry, with roots back to 1909, is officially born as a reaction to Russian Futurism. Manifestos are printed in the journal Apollon by Nikolay Gumilyov and Sergey Gorodetsky, with illustrative works by both, and by Anna Akhmatova, Vladimir Narbut, and Osip Mandelstam — the last with "Hagia Sophia".[1]
• January 1 – The German National Library is founded in Leipzig.
• January 8 – Harold Monro founds the Poetry Bookshop in London, which becomes a noted literary meeting-place.[2]
• April 5 – Serialization of the adventures of Gaston Leroux's character Chéri-Bibi begins in Le Matin (France).
• April – Bernhard Kellermann's novel Der Tunnel sells 100,000 copies in its first six months.
• c. April – Humphrey S. Milford becomes publisher to the University of Oxford and head of the London operations of Oxford University Press, after the retirement of Henry Frowde.[3][4]
• September – F. Scott Fitzgerald enters Princeton University, where he meets Edmund Wilson and John Peale Bishop.
• November 8 – Georg Büchner's play Woyzeck, unfinished on his death in 1837, receives its first performance at the Residenztheater, Munich.
• November 13 – Marcel Proust's Swann's Way (Du côté de chez Swann), volume 1 of In Search of Lost Time (À la recherche du temps perdu), is published by Éditions Grasset in Paris at the author's expense.
• December 13 – Ambrose Bierce, an observer with Pancho Villa's army in the Mexican Revolution, is last heard from.
• December 21 – Arthur Wynne's "word-cross", the first crossword puzzle, appears in the New York World.

Uncertain dates

• Husayn Haykal publishes the first modern Egyptian novel, Zaynab.
• Norbert von Hellingrath begins publishing Friedrich Hölderlin's complete works (Sämtliche Werke: historisch-kritische Ausgabe, the "Berliner Ausgabe"), restoring it to literary prominence.
• Henri Stahl publishes excerpts from his novel Un român în lună ("A Romanian on the Moon", republished as a book in 1914), one of the earliest works of Romanian science fiction.[5]

• January 29 – Peter von Zahn, German journalist and writer (died 2001)
• February 2 – Racey Helps, English children's writer and illustrator (died 1970)
• February 27 – Irwin Shaw, American playwright, screenwriter and novelist (died 1984)
• March 2 – Godfried Bomans, Dutch writer (died 1971)
• April 18 – Muttathu Varkey, Malayalam novelist, short story writer, and poet (died 1989)
• June 22 – Sándor Weöres, Hungarian poet and author (died 1989)
• June 26 – Aimé Césaire, Martinique writer (died 2008)
• July 6 – Gwyn Thomas, Welsh novelist (died 1981)
• July 21 – Catherine Storr, English children's writer (died 2001)
• August 11 – Angus Wilson, English novelist (died 1991)
• August 28 – Robertson Davies, Canadian novelist (died 1995)
• October 19 – Vasco Pratolini, Italian writer (died 1991)
• November 7 – Albert Camus, French writer (died 1960)
• November 10 – Karl Shapiro, American poet (died 2000)
• December 26 – Elizabeth David (née Gwynne), English cookery writer (died 1992)
• December 27 – Elizabeth Smart, Canadian poet and novelist (died 1986)

• January 21 – Aluísio Azevedo, Brazilian novelist, playwright and short story writer (born 1857)
• February 9 – Oscar Méténier, French novelist and dramatist (born 1859)
• February 13 – Charles Major, American novelist (born 1856)
• March 7 – Pauline Johnson, Canadian poet (born 1861)
• March 13 – Thomas Krag, Norwegian novelist, dramatist and short story writer (born 1868)
• April 4 – Edward Dowden, Irish critic and poet (born 1843)
• June 2 – Alfred Austin, English poet and Poet Laureate (born 1835)
• June 13 – Camille Lemonnier, Belgian poet and journalist (born 1844)
• July 8 – Louis Hémon, French novelist (rail accident, born 1880)
• October 9 – D. Iacobescu, Romanian poet (born 1893)
• October 19 – Emily Lawless, Irish-born modernist novelist and poet (born 1845)
• November 26 – Frances Julia Wedgwood, English feminist novelist, biographer and critic (born 1833)
• December 1 – Juhan Liiv, Estonian poet and short story writer (born 1864)
• December 5 – Ferdinand Dugué, French poet and playwright (born 1816)
• December 11 – Ioan Kalinderu, Romanian classical scholar, jurist and agriculturalist (born 1840)
• Unknown date – Charlotte Louisa Hawkins Dempster, Scottish novelist and essayist (born 1835 in literature)

• Nobel Prize for Literature: Rabindranath Tagore
• Newdigate prize: Maurice Roy Ridley

• Anna Akhmatova's epic poem Poem Without a Hero (Poema bez geroya, 1940–65) opens in this year.
• The main action of Ford Madox Ford's novel The Good Soldier (1915) opens in this year.
• Alan Hollinghurst's novel The Stranger's Child (2011) opens in this year.
• Georges Simenon's detective fiction Maigret's First Case (La Première enquête de Maigret, 1948) is set in this year.