Un certain M. Piekielny

As soon as Romain Gary received a sort of request: "When you meet great people, important men, promise me to tell them: at number 16 of the Rue Grande-Pohulanka, at Wilno, lived M. Piekielny." He respected this promise made to this neighbor (who looked like a "sad mouse" and who guessed in him a child with a great future) when he became a resistant, diplomatic and of course a writer. And the author states in The Promise of Dawn: "From the UN platforms to the London Embassy, ​​from the Federal Palace of Berne to the Elysee Palace, before Charles de Gaulle and Vichinsky, in front of the high dignitaries and the builders for a thousand years, I never failed to mention the existence of the little man."--Translation of page 4 of cover by lelitteraire.com