In the autobiographical novel Artists and Citizens, Kos recalls events from the lives of his parents' families. Since his father was an artist-sculptor, he grew up in contact with figures from the art world (painters Gorše, Maleš, Mihelič) who frequented their house (built by architect Schell, and his father gave it a special touch with an art studio). His mother had a stronger influence on her son, as she passed on to him her love of literature (she especially appreciated Dickens, Undset, Cronin). The work generally talks a lot about literature and making friends. It is interesting to note that Kos was the first to be invited to a "professional" reading of his cousin Dane Zajc's poems, but he declined the invitation. The relationship to Kermauner and Zlobec is also highlighted, and intellectual movements, the founding of magazines, and the beginning of the publication of Kos's first literary criticism and essays in the Mladinska revija are presented. With the people he met, he characterized the atmosphere of a certain period, up to 1950. Ideologists and dissidents are the second part of Kos's memoirs.