This first book, published by the distinguished professor in 1963, a monographic study dedicated to the Humulești-born Romanian master storyteller, is now published in its definitive edition. This is the version that the author polished and completed towards the end of her life, in 2000, when, at Văratec Monastery, she returned to her studies dedicated to Mihai Eminescu and Ion Creangă.

“The author's gesture of returning, at the end of her career, to the theme of her debut once again confirmed the privileged position that Zoe Dumitrescu-Bușulenga reserved for Ion Creangă's work within the Romanian cultural imaginary. At the same time, from the perspective of her debut, it reaffirmed that the Creangă project had been conceived, from the very beginning, in diptych with the Eminescu project, since the 1963 volume Ion Creangă would be followed, in the same year, by the monograph Mihai Eminescu. Thus, the importance of Creangă in the context of Zoe Dumitrescu-Bușulenga's exegetical work derives not so much from the recurrence or the extent of the subject, but rather from its being a substantive part – even though recessively marked – of a visionary project: the Eminescu – Creangă diptych, which has anticipated the intersection of lines in an architecture that upholds the dome of a constellation of values.” (Iulian Costache, Foreword)