Novelist and politician Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton was Secretary of State for the Colonies at the time that Queensland separated from New South Wales and he appointed Sir George Bowen to the governorship of the new colony in 1859. His novels were widely read in Australia, including by Rosa Praed. Noel Macainsh comments that 'both as Colonial Secretary and Rosacrucian writer of occult romances ...[he] played a significant role not only in the founding of the State of Queensland, but also, through Mrs Campbell Praed, in influencing the occult novel in Australia' (13).
Some of Lytton's plays were produced in the Australian colonies in the nineteenth century, and two of his novels (The Caxtons, 1850, and A Strange Story, 1862) have Australian references and/or settings; only these novels by Lytton are listed in AustLit.
Lytton is the father of Edward Robert Lytton (1831-1891).