Everybody agrees that The Ship of Ishtar is a fantasy novel genre masterpiece. H. Rider Haggard and Gertrude Barrows Bennett (writing as Francis Stevens) had a significant effect on Merritt's writing and Merritt emulated Bennett's earlier style and subjects. Yet Merritt's lush florid literary style and his thorough at times tedious fondness for adjective-laden description set him apart from the standard pulp writer.