The book of the famous Ukrainian Shevchenko scholar, corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Lenin Prize laureate E.P. Kirilyuk is a detailed story about the life and creative path of the great Ukrainian poet and artist T. G. Shevchenko (1814-1861). On the basis of archival, epistolary and memoir material, the author in a popular form reveals the formation of Shevchenko's talent, the ideological appearance of a fiery revolutionary, his poetic skills, his role in the development of Ukrainian literature.