Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin

Reading notes

• To N. A. Leikin, 22 March 1885. Moscow. §5 Bilibin

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin, a fellow Oskolki contributor based in Petersburg (pen name I. Grek), with whom Leikin apparently traded comic ideas -- collaboration Chekhov, stuck in Moscow, says he misses.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 3 February 1886. Moscow. §6 I'll copy out a passage from Bilibin's letter

  Chekhov quotes Bilibin's own account of being refused a raise by Leikin, offered as corroborating evidence that Leikin stiffs all his contributors alike, not just Alexander.

• To N. A. Leikin, 12 January 1887. Moscow. §7 Viktor Viktorovich

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin, a fellow Oskolki writer (pen name "I. Grek") known to Chekhov and Leikin's circle for his own taciturn manner, invoked here as the standard of comparison for Gruzinsky's silence.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 17 January 1887. Moscow. §8 Bilibin

  Viktor Bilibin, a fellow Oskolki contributor (pen name "I. Grek"); Chekhov's comparison of him to a spinning grey disc is an affectionate joke about a personality that seems dull on first acquaintance but improves with familiarity.

• To N. A. Leikin, 26 January 1887. Moscow. §5 Bilibin received a letter from me

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin, a fellow contributor to Oskolki (writing under the pen name "I. Grek") and Leikin's editorial assistant, through whom Chekhov often routed urgent business to spare the cost of a telegram.

• To N. A. Leikin, 26 January 1887. Moscow. §10 Viktor Viktorovich has peculiar requirements

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin again, referred to here by his given name and patronymic rather than his surname -- the same Oskolki colleague named in §5, whose editorial preferences for stories and tales Leikin had apparently relayed to Chekhov.

• To Al. P. Chekhov, 19–20 February 1887. Moscow. §8 Bilibin is starting to write himself out

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin, Chekhov's fellow contributor to the Petersburg humor press and Leikin's editorial assistant at Oskolki; Chekhov criticizes his recent work, especially in the Petersburg Gazette, as formulaic.

• To N. A. Leikin, 25 February 1887. Moskva*. §7 Bilibin

  Viktor Bilibin, a regular contributor to Leikin's "Oskolki" who wrote under the pen name "I. Grek"; Chekhov wonders here why his column has vanished from the "Peterburgskaya Gazeta."

• To N. A. Leikin, 30 March 1887. Moscow. §5 Bilibin

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin, Leikin's assistant editor at Oskolki (himself a contributor under the pen name "I. Grek"), through whom Chekhov asks that his fee be routed.

• To N. A. Leikin, 17 April 1887. Taganrog. §15 I wrote to Bilibin

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin, a fellow Oskolki writer (pen name "I. Grek") who by this date also handled some of the magazine's editorial and financial correspondence.

• To N. A. Leikin, 22 May 1887. Babkino. §4 When you or Bilibin take it into your heads to go traveling

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin, a fellow Oskolki contributor (pen name "I. Grek") who by this date also handled some of the magazine's editorial correspondence alongside Leikin.

• To N. A. Leikin, 4 June 1887. Babkino. §5 sent Bilibin a story

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin, a fellow contributor to "Oskolki" who also handled some of the magazine's editorial correspondence.

• To A. S. Lazarev, 27–28 June 1887. Babkino. §3 Bilibin

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin, a fellow contributor to Leikin's "Oskolki," whom Chekhov had already asked to relay the same invitation to Lazarev on his behalf.

• To N. A. Leikin, 17 July 1887. Babkino. §3 Bilibin

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin, a fellow "Oskolki" writer (pen name "I. Grek") and Leikin's secretary at the magazine, whom Chekhov cites here as his usual source of news about Leikin.

• To N. A. Leikin, 17 July 1887. Babkino. §5 Bilibin

  The story Chekhov mentions sending is addressed to Bilibin directly, likely for placement in "Oskolki" or simply as the most convenient go-between with Leikin at the time.

• To N. A. Leikin, 11 August 1887. Babkino. §4 Bilibin

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin, Leikin's secretary at "Oskolki" and a fellow contributor, Chekhov's usual source of news about Leikin's movements.

• To N. A. Leikin, 11 September 1887. Moscow. §14 V. V. Bilibin

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin, a fellow Oskolki contributor (writing under the pen name "I. Grek") and friend of Chekhov's, in evidently poor health at this period; Chekhov also uses the occasion to needle Leikin's paper, the "Peterburgskaya gazeta," for having let Bilibin go as a contributor despite his talent and youth.

• To N. A. Leikin, 7 October 1887. Moscow. §5 Bilibin

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin, a fellow Oskolki contributor and one of the few people Chekhov says he can ask favors of without feeling awkward.

• To N. A. Leikin, 4 November 1887. Moscow. §16 Bilibin

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin, fellow Oskolki contributor and one of Chekhov's regular Petersburg correspondents; Chekhov reports on his recent illness (a one-sided muscular rheumatism, i.e. lumbago) and asks Leikin to look after him.

• To K. S. Barantsevich, 15 December 1887. Petersburg. §3 Bilibin

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin, a writer for the humor weekly Oskolki, known there under the pen name "I. Grek."

• To I. L. Leontyev, 1 January 1888. Moscow. §7 Get acquainted with Bilibin and Golike

  Viktor Bilibin (another Oskolki contributor, pen name "I. Grek") and Roman Golike (a St. Petersburg printer-publisher tied to Leikin's circle); Chekhov is making a social introduction within his Petersburg literary-publishing network.

• To N. A. Leikin, 29 March 1888. Moscow. §13 Bilibin

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin, a fellow Oskolki contributor and friend within Leikin's circle whom Chekhov urges to take a rest, half-joking that he is aging fast.

• To N. M. Yezhov, 8 August 1888. Sumy. §6 Write to Bilibin

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin, secretary of "Oskolki" and one of Chekhov's regular correspondents in the humor-magazine circle.

• To N. A. Lei Kin, 5 October 1888. Moscow. §8 Bilibin

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin, another "Oskolki" contributor and one of Chekhov's regular Petersburg correspondents.

• To A. S. Lazarev, 20 October 1888. Moscow. §12 Bilibin

  Viktor Bilibin, humorist and fellow "Oskolki"/"Fragments" contributor, held up here as a model of overly whimsical, old-womanish sentimentality that Chekhov warns Lazarev against imitating -- a fault to avoid, not a model to follow.

• To N. A. Leikin, 5 November 1888. Moscow. §12 Viktor Viktorovich

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin, a fellow "Oskolki" contributor, as in the closing regards of.

• To N. A. Leikin, 8 November 1888. Moscow. §6 Viktor Viktorovich

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin, a fellow "Oskolki" contributor, as in the closing regards of and.

• To N. A. Leikin, 10 April 1889. Moscow. §7 Bilibin

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin, Oskolki staff writer and one of Chekhov's regular correspondents of this period.

• To I. L. Leontyev, 12 April 1889. Moscow. §6 Bilibin

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin, editor at the humor weekly Oskolki ("Fragments") and a mutual friend of Chekhov and Shcheglov; Chekhov gives an affectionately backhanded character sketch of him here.

• To N. A. Leikin, 22 May 1889. Sumy. §7 Bilibin

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin, Oskolki staff writer and one of Chekhov's regular correspondents of this period, matching the entity already established in \S7.

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 30 November 1891. Moscow. §5 Take on Oskolki's Igrek for all manner of feuilleton writing at \emph{Sever}

  Chekhov recommends Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin to Tikhonov as a contributor for \emph{Sever}, identifying him by his \emph{Oskolki} pen name "Igrek" (Игрэк, the Cyrillic spelling-out of the Greek letter "Y" / Latin "Y," a common type of humor-weekly byline of the period); the same writer appears elsewhere in the corpus under the closely related pen name "I. Grek" (И. Грек).

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 30 November 1891. Moscow. §5 That's Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin, 9 Kolokolnaya, apt. 12

  Chekhov supplies Bilibin's St. Petersburg address so Tikhonov can contact him directly; Bilibin was a longtime \emph{Oskolki} colleague from Chekhov's own early Petersburg-adjacent humor-magazine years.

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 30 November 1891. Moscow. §5 Of all the Petersburg columnists, he's the most gifted

  Chekhov's unqualified professional endorsement of Bilibin's feuilleton writing, the strongest praise he offers any fellow journalist in this letter.

• Notebooks. Diaries §1687 Bilibin

  Viktor Viktorovich Bilibin (1859-1908), humorist and editor at the journal Oskolki, an old friend from Chekhov's early comic-writing years in the 1880s.