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The Bulwer-Lytton confusion EDWARD GEORGE BULWER-LYTTON | CONFUSION | EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON | ROSICRUSIANS Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton (1831-1891) Conspiracy theorists and anti-masonic writers will on occasion display their lack of research by confusing Edward George Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) with his son, Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton (1831-91). Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer was known, after the death of his mother in 1843, as Edward George Earle Bulwar-Lytton, and then after he was raised to the peerage in 1866, as Baron Lytton of Knebworth. Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton was created first earl of Lytton in 1880. Contemporary writers would often refer to one or the other as "Lord Lytton," "Baron Lytton" or "Edward Bulwer-Lytton" and assume their readers knew to whom they were referring. This has occasionally mislead even serious scholars. Shown here is the frontispiece to Edward Bulwer-Lytton by James L. Campbell Sr. , University of California at Santa Barbara. Twayne Publishers, Boston: 1986 [156 pages] ISBN 0-8057-6914-5. The caption reads "EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON (1803-1873), Portrait by G.F. Watts. Reprinted courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London." This is an error. Although the book is about Edward George, the painting is actually that of Edward Robert. The image has also been reversed so that he faces in the opposite direction.

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