The article is devoted to the memory of Irina Yurievna Fomenko (April 4, 1953 — May 30, 2020), philologist and book critic, the leading researcher in the Research Scientific Department of Rare Books (Book Museum) of the Russian State Library, responsible editor of four volumes of the “Union catalogue of Russian books. 1801—1825”. The authors give brief biography of I.Y. Fomenko, summarize information about her 150 scientific publications, which reflect the domestic publishing repertoire of the first quarter of the 19th century, relate to various aspects of working with early printed books, the subtleties of bibliographic description and book annotation. I.Y. Fomenko studied the creative heritage of M.N. Muravyev and defended PhD thesis on his prose. She wrote a number of articles for the Dictionary of Russian writers of the 18th century. With her participation, there were created catalogues of books of civil press and private owner’s collections from various holdings. Biographies of Russian writers of the 18th — 19th centuries, written by I.Y. Fomenko, were included in the collection of Russian literary studies.