person

Nikolai Petrovich Wagner

Wagner

also: Н. П. Вагнер, N. P. Wagner, Kot-Murlyka, Кот-Мурлыка

Probable referent of the unadorned "Wagner" Chekhov disputes here: the zoologist, spiritualist, and writer Nikolai Petrovich Wagner (1829-1907), who published fiction under the pen name "Kot-Murlyka"; not to be confused with the composer Richard Wagner or with the unrelated zoologist. The letter gives no further identifying detail, so this identification should be treated as probable, not certain.

Reading notes

To V. A. Tikhonov, 7 March 1889. Moscow. §8 Wagner
Most plausibly Nikolai Petrovich Wagner, the zoologist, spiritualist, and writer (pen name "Kot-Murlyka") active in the Russian press of this period -- not the composer Richard Wagner. The letter gives no further detail, so this identification is probable rather than certain.
To A. S. Suvorin, 28 August 1891. Bogimovo. §7 Bogdanov knows that Wagner lives with Chekhov
This letter identifies Chekhov's houseguest at Bogimovo as Nikolai Petrovich Wagner (1829-1907), the zoologist, spiritualist, and writer (pen name "Kot-Murlyka"), previously entered in this corpus as a probable identification at on internal evidence alone. Here the context is unambiguous: Wagner is a working zoologist with a doctoral dissertation still pending before the very academic establishment Bogdanov dominates, which is precisely why Chekhov insists on anonymity for their joint note -- exposure risks Bogdanov quietly retaliating against Wagner's degree. The passage functions as strong corroborating evidence for the identification, though the entity record there is left as this edition found it rather than retroactively upgraded from a single additional letter.
To N. M. Lintvareva, 5 July 1891. Bogimovo. §3 what a spider
"Paучок" ("little spider"), the household nickname for a naturalist houseguest cataloguing spiders that summer -- expanded at section 5 ("a superb zoologist and a great philosopher"). Probable identification with Nikolai Petrovich Wagner, the zoologist and writer who was Chekhov's houseguest at Bogimovo that same season (see's entity summary); not certain, as the letter itself never gives Wagner's name.
To A. S. Suvorin, 13 July 1891. Bogimovo. §7 the zoologist Wagner
Nikolai Petrovich Wagner, the zoologist, spiritualist, and writer (pen name "Kot-Murlyka") who summered near the Chekhovs at Bogimovo in 1891 and recurs across this run of letters; distinct from the unrelated zoologist.
To M. V. Kiseleva, 20 July 1891. Bogimovo. §4 the zoologist Wagner
Probably Nikolai Petrovich Wagner (1829-1907), zoologist, spiritualist, and popular writer of fairy tales under the pen name "Kot-Murlyka"; he and his family were fellow summer guests at the Bogimovo estate alongside the Chekhovs in 1891.
To A. S. Suvorin, 18 August 1891. Bogimovo. §10 the zoologist Wagner, whom you know
Probably Nikolai Petrovich Wagner, the zoologist, spiritualist, and writer (pen name "Kot-Murlyka") who was a guest at Bogimovo that summer -- not to be confused with the unrelated zoologist Vladimir Alexandrovich Wagner or with Richard Wagner the composer.