Edward Bulwer-Lytton
1803 – 1873 · aged 70
British statesman and author (1803–1873)
- Born
- 25 May 1803 · London
- Died
- 18 Jan 1873 · Torquay
Life timeline
Their life from birth to death. On the timeline, world events of the time are shown faintly.
- 25 May 1803BornBorn in London
- 1831 – 1832RoleMember of the 10th Parliament of the United Kingdom
- 1832 – 1834RoleMember of the 11th Parliament of the United Kingdom
- 1835 – 1837RoleMember of the 12th Parliament of the United Kingdom
- 1837 – 1841RoleMember of the 13th Parliament of the United Kingdom
- 1852 – 1857RoleMember of the 16th Parliament of the United Kingdom
- 1857 – 1859RoleMember of the 17th Parliament of the United Kingdom
- 1858 – 1859RoleSecretary of State for the Colonies
- 1859 – 1865RoleMember of the 18th Parliament of the United Kingdom
- 1865 – 1866RoleMember of the 19th Parliament of the United Kingdom
- 1866 – 1873RoleMember of the House of Lords
- 18 Jan 1873DiedDied in Torquay
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Meanwhile in the world
Major world events during their lifetime (1803 – 1873).
- 1812 – 1815War of 1812
- 1814 – 1815Congress of Vienna
- 1853 – 1856Crimean War
- 1857 – 1858Indian Rebellion of 1857
- 1870 – 1871Franco-Prussian War
Biography
Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (25 May 1803 – 18 January 1873) was an English writer and politician. He served as a Whig member of Parliament from 1831 to 1841 and a Conservative from 1851 to 1866. He was Secretary of State for the Colonies from June 1858 to June 1859, as which he selected Richard Clement Moody to found British Columbia. He was created Baron Lytton of Knebworth in 1866.
Bulwer-Lytton's works were well known in his time. He coined famous phrases like "pursuit of the almighty dollar", "the pen is mightier than the sword", "dweller on the threshold", "the great unwashed", and the opening phrase (incipit) "It was a dark and stormy night". The sardonic Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, held annually from 1982 to 2024, claimed to seek the "opening sentence of the worst of all possible novels".
Text from the Wikipedia article Edward Bulwer-Lytton, CC BY-SA 4.0
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