person

Viktor Ivanovich Bibikov

Bibikov

also: Бибиков, V. I. Bibikov

A minor novelist of Chekhov's acquaintance who had promised to send Chekhov copies of his novels; Chekhov reports here that the promise went unfulfilled, joking that he must have frightened Bibikov off for nothing.

Reading notes

To I. L. Leontyev, 1 January 1888. Moscow. §11 Bibikov doesn't send me his novels
A minor novelist who had apparently promised Chekhov copies of his work; the joke turns on Chekhov wondering whether he inadvertently frightened Bibikov out of following through.
To K. S. Barantsevich, 25 April 1888. Moscow. §3 Mr. Bibikov
Viktor Ivanovich Bibikov, a minor novelist of Chekhov's acquaintance. Chekhov's hypothetical is entirely separate from the Leman clause that follows in the same sentence: he worries Bibikov might, after Chekhov's death, publish foolish reminiscences of him in "Vsemirnaya Illyustratsiya" -- a distinct anxiety about a future memoirist, not about who is fit to speak at a funeral. Keep Bibikov and Leman as two separate men, each the subject of his own clause, not a single referent.
To K. S. Barantsevich, 17 May 1888. Sumy. §4 Bibikov's tactless reminiscences
Viktor Ivanovich Bibikov, a minor novelist of Chekhov's acquaintance. A memoir piece by Bibikov published in "Vsemirnaya Illyustratsiya" (World Illustration) that Chekhov found tactless enough to sour his mood further.
To A. S. Suvorin, 5 January 1891. Moscow. §7 The writer Viktor Bibikov came too
Viktor Bibikov, a minor novelist of Chekhov's acquaintance, noted elsewhere in the corpus for having promised Chekhov copies of his novels.
To L. S. Mizinova, 21 January 1891. Petersburg. §11 a girl of astonishing beauty
Bibikov's overheard remark, relayed back to Petersburg, gives Chekhov a pretext to needle Mizinova with a rivalry against his sister Maria Pavlovna ("Masha,") over which of them the compliment was meant for -- the letter's closing tease.