Edward was the author of numerous popular novels, poems and dramas and also served as Secretary of State for the Colonies under the Earl of Derby between 1858 and 1859.

Lord Lytton married Pamela Plowden, remembered as the first great love of Winston Churchill.

In 1899 he married Judith Blunt, 16th Baroness Wentworth, the renowned horse breeder who devoted her life to the Crabbet Arabian Stud.

The stud had been created by her parents, the poet Wilfrid Scawen Blunt and his wife Anne Blunt, 15th Baroness Wentworth, granddaughter of Lord Byron through his daughter Ada Lovelace (see the Baron Wentworth for earlier history of this title).

The heir apparent is the present holder's son, Philip Anthony Scawen Lytton, Viscount Knebworth (born 1989)