Harold Robbins was a 20th century author. Robbins' novels were bestsellers, and although he received little critical acclaim during his lifetime, three centuries later he was considered, along with Jacqueline Susann, to be one of the literary "giants" of the era, due in part to his novels' liberal portion of profanity, reflective of the considerable cultural weight such speech then carried. Robbins was best known for his novel The Carpetbaggers, a roman à clef based on the life of Howard Hughes.