The Miscast Barbarian: a Biography of Robert E. Howard is a biography by science-fiction writer L. Sprague de Camp, first published in hardcover and trade paperback in 1975 by Gerry de la Ree.

The book is an expansion of de Camp’s article “The Miscast Barbarian”, which appeared in the magazine Fantastic in June, 1971. Later, in collaboration with Catherine Crook de Camp and Jane Whittington Griffin, he expanded the text again, into Dark Valley Destiny: the Life of Robert E. Howard (1983), the first major independent biography of Howard.

Contents

• 2 • Publisher’s Note (The Miscast Barbarian) • essay by Gerry de la Ree
• 3 • Introduction (The Miscast Barbarian) • essay by L. Sprague de Camp
• 4 •  The Miscast Barbarian (The Deathless Queen in a City Old as Death) • interior artwork by Cora Lee Healy [as by C. Lee Healy]
• 7 •  The Miscast Barbarian • interior artwork by Stephen Fabian
• 16 •  The Miscast Barbarian (Pigeons from Hell) • interior artwork by Virgil Finlay (variant of Pigeons from Hell 1938)
• 22 •  The Miscast Barbarian (Conan the Conqueror) • interior artwork by Stephen Fabian
• 26 •  The Miscast Barbarian (Conan) • interior artwork by Roy G. Krenkel
• 30 •  The Miscast Barbarian (Conan the Barbarian) • interior artwork by George Barr
• 32 •  The Miscast Barbarian (Conan) • interior artwork by Stephen Fabian
• 34 •  The Miscast Barbarian (Conan the Cimmerian and Bêlit) • interior artwork by Stephen Fabian
• 36 •  The Miscast Barbarian (Dig Me No Grave) • interior artwork by Virgil Finlay (variant of Dig Me No Grave 1937)
• 39 •  The Miscast Barbarian (The Girl with the Golden Hair) • interior artwork by Cora Lee Healy [as by C. Lee Healy]
• 43 •  The Miscast Barbarian (The Sea Woman) • interior artwork by Cora Lee Healy [as by C. Lee Healy]
• bc •  The Miscast Barbarian (Colophon) • interior artwork by Stephen Fabian (variant of Gerry de la Ree Colophon)