Edward Bulwer-Lytton

Edward Bulwer Lytton (1803-1873)
Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton was the first Baron Lytton and an English novelist, poet, playwright and politician. In 1822 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, moving to Trinity Hall shortly afterwards. He won the Chancellor's Gold Medal for English verse in 1825 and took his BA degree the following year. At this time he printed, for private circulation, a small volume of poems, Weeds and Wild Flowers. He coined the phrases "the great unwashed", "the pen is mightier than the sword" and the infamous opening line "It was a dark and stormy night". Bulwer Lytton was a versatile and prolific writer in several genres and his powerful interest in the occult surfaces throughout his work. He spent the last few years of his life nursing his health in Torquay before dying not long after an operation to cure deafness, just short of his 70th birthday.

For more information see http://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/lytton_edward_bulwer