Edward Bulwer-Lytton was an English writer and prominent politician whose active literary career spanned the mid-nineteenth century. A highly popular and widely read author in his own time, he was also deeply involved in British statecraft, serving as a Member of Parliament first as a Whig from 1831 to 1841, and later as a Conservative from 1851 to 1866. During his tenure as the Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1858 to 1859, he played a key role in colonial administration by selecting Richard Clement Moody to establish British Columbia. His political and social contributions culminated in 1866 when he was created Baron Lytton of Knebworth. Though his literary standing has evolved, Bulwer-Lytton's linguistic legacy remains deeply embedded in modern English. He coined several of the language's most enduring and recognizable idioms, including 'the pen is mightier than the sword,' 'the pursuit of the almighty dollar,' 'the great unwashed,' and 'dweller on the threshold.' He is also famously responsible for the atmospheric, oft-parodied opening line 'It was a dark and stormy night,' an incipit that eventually inspired the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, which ran from 1982 to 2024 to celebrate the worst possible opening sentences in fiction.
