Page "L. Sprague de Camp" Paragraph 11

De Camp had the mind of an educator, and a common theme in many of his works is a corrective impulse regarding similar previous works by other authors.

A highly rational and logical thinker, he was frequently disturbed by what he regarded as logical lapses and absurdities in others ' writings.

Thus, his response to Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court was to write a similar time travel novel ( Lest Darkness Fall ) in which the method of time travel was rationalized and the hero's technical expertise both set at a believable level and constrained by the technological limitations of the age.