 The book has been translated into French as "Les pionniers de la fantasy".The work presents the history of the genre through a discussion of the lives and works of its most important early writers.After a general survey of the development of modern fantasy, individual chapters deal with William Morris, Lord Dunsany, H. P. Lovecraft, E. R. Eddison, Robert E. Howard, Fletcher Pratt, Clark Ashton Smith, J. R. R. Tolkien, and T. H. White.