His main interests were literary. He contributed to "The True Sun", "The Morning Chronicle" and "The Examiner", of which he was literary and dramatic critic; and the influence of his powerful individuality soon made itself felt. "Lives of the Statesmen of the Commonwealth" (1836–1839) appeared partly in Lardner's "Cabinet Cyclopaedia". Forster published the work separately in 1840 with a "Treatise on the Popular Progress in English History". It obtained immediate recognition, making Forster a prominent figure in a distinguished circle of literary men which included Leigh Hunt, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Thomas Noon Talfourd, Albany Fonblanque, Walter Savage Landor, Robert Browning, Thomas Carlyle and Charles Dickens.