In the new book, Viktor Kalugin continues to study the folk epic, recreating more than fifty "portraits" of only its most important characters, referring to the history of collecting and studying epics. Already published essays about the storyteller Vasily Shchegolenka, about the famous Irina Fedosova are supplemented with new ones - about the fairy tales of Alexander Veltman, about folklore education. For the first time, an essay is published about P.V. Kireevsky - the creator of the first national library of folklore, among the "contributors" of which were A.S. Pushkin, N.V. Gogol, A.V. Koltsov, N.M. Yazykov, P.I. Yakushkin, V.I. Dahl and many other figures of Russian literature and culture. The book is widely illustrated and aimed at the general public.