- Feb 10 Alexander Pushkin, Russian poet and writer (Eugene Onegin), killed in a duel at 37
- Feb 12 Ludwig Borne [Loeb Baruch], German-Jewish writer, dies at 50
- Feb 13 Mariano José de Larra, Spanish journalist and romantic writer, commits suicide by gunshot at 27
- Feb 19 Georg Büchner, German playwright (b. 1813)