Ficowski’s fascination with Schulz’s prose, which he developed at the age of eighteen, would later evolve into a lifetime literary study. By pursuing this fascination, Ficowski (whom Jerzy Jarzębski called a “loving critic”) gave the writer from Drohobycz a “surrogate life”.

“I went crazy about it” – said Ficowski about his first reading of Cinnamon Shops in 1942. The young enthusiast wrote a letter to the author, but it was too late. After learning that Schulz had been shot, he decided to write about Schulz “for himself”. Five years later, he started to search for relics of the “Great Mythmaker”, whom he proclaimed to be his mentor (along with Leśmian and Wojtkiewicz). His biographical contributions and publications of Schulz’s letters, drawings and illustrations, which he had discovered and recovered, gained him a reputation as the greatest expert on Schulz. In subsequent versions of his essays, the most complete compilation of which can be found in Regiony wielkiej herezji i okolice (Regions of the Great Heresy and Environs), he would continue to look for the essence of Schulzian mythology.