Andre Mauroy - famous French writer, member of the French Academy, classic of French literature of the XX century. His creative heritage is extensive and multifaceted - psychological novels, short stories, travel essays, historical and literary works, etc. But first of all, Mauroy is a recognized master of romanized biographies of Dumas, Balzac, Victor Hugo and others. And therefore, the writer's appeal to the genre of literary portrait - a kind of mini-biography, a small essay about any of his colleagues in the shop, was not accidental.