English writer and politician Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton was born #OTD in 1803.
He published Falkland in 1827: its intimate portrayal of pre-Victorian dandyism kept gossips busy trying to associate public figures with characters in the book. The character of Richard Crawford in The Disowned, also published in 1828, borrowed much from that of banker and forger Henry Fauntleroy, who was hanged in London in 1824.
Edward Bulwer-Lytton at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/761