 The work, an examination of the famous fantasy writer and creator of Conan the Barbarian, was the first major independent biography of Howard.It is an expansion of de Camp's earlier study "" (1975), itself an expansion of his article "The Miscast Barbarian", which appeared in the magazine "Fantastic" in June, 1971.De Camp's "warts and all" approach to his subject has been branded by some fans as unflattering and unbalanced.