Vladimir Alekseevich Tikhonov

Reading notes

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 21 April 1888. Moscow. §4 Vladimir Alekseevich

  Vladimir Alekseevich Tikhonov, a playwright who had sent Chekhov a book with an inscription; this is Tikhonov's first appearance in the corpus.

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 4 May 1888. Moscow. §3 Vladimir Alekseevich!

  Vladimir Alekseevich Tikhonov, the playwright Chekhov had first written to on 21 April 1888 to thank him for a book; this second, hastier note answers Tikhonov's own reply and exchanges summer addresses ahead of Chekhov's departure for Sumy.

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 4 May 1888. Moscow. §9 St. Petersburg, Povarskoy Lane, house 12, apt. 17

  Tikhonov's old Petersburg mailing address, carried on the reverse of the note; Chekhov writes to it on the chance it still finds him, having received no summer address in return.

• To I. L. Leontyev, 14 September 1888. Moscow. §10 Tikhonov

  Vladimir Alekseevich Tikhonov, playwright and fellow member of the Moscow-Petersburg theatrical circle; Chekhov asks Shcheglov to relay an invitation to him as well.

• To I. L. Leontyev, 2 November 1888. Moscow. §10 I've been seeing Tikhonov. He advises sending "The Bear" to the Alexandrinsky.

  Almost certainly the playwright Vladimir Alekseevich Tikhonov, a member of the same Moscow-Petersburg theatrical circle named elsewhere in the Shcheglov correspondence; named here by surname alone, so the identification, while consistent with the wider correspondence of this period, is contextual rather than explicit in the source itself.

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 2 December 1888. en route to Petersburg. §7 To Vladimir Alekseevich

  Vladimir Alekseevich Tikhonov, the playwright and editor Chekhov had already been corresponding with earlier in 1888 (see the 14 September letter to Shcheglov, \S10, and the 4 May letter to Tikhonov himself); named here by given name and patronymic on the envelope, with the surname carried to the following section as in the source.

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 2 December 1888. en route to Petersburg. §8 Tikhonov

  Completes the envelope's addressee line begun in \S7: Vladimir Alekseevich Tikhonov.

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 20 December 1888. Moscow. §3 Vladimir Alekseevich

  Chekhov's salutation names Tikhonov by given name and patronymic; the same person named on the envelope of the earlier 2 December 1888 travel note, Chekhov's first letter sent directly to him.

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 19 January 1889. Petersburg. §8 To Vladimir Alexeyevich Tikhonov

  The addressee line, giving Tikhonov's name in full; the destination side of the postcard, separate from the return-address block at \S6-7.

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 10 February 1889. Moscow. §2 critic Tikhonov's debut

  This letter marks Vladimir Tikhonov's first outing specifically as a theater critic, with a review appearing in "Nedelya"; until now he had been known to Chekhov only as a playwright, hence the mock-ceremonious "dear playwright" greeting that opens this paragraph.

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 7 March 1889. Moscow. §4 Vladimir Alexeyevich!

  Vladimir Alekseevich Tikhonov, the playwright and editor Chekhov had been corresponding with since 1888; addressed here by first name and patronymic in the warm, informal style of an established correspondence.

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 31 May 1889. Sumy. §3 my dear Russian Sardou

  Addressed to Vladimir Alekseevich Tikhonov, jokingly compared to the prolific French playwright Victorien Sardou -- apt given Tikhonov's own career as a dramatist.

• To I. L. Leontyev, 21 October 1889. Moscow. §8 Tikhonov was in Moscow.

  Vladimir Alekseevich Tikhonov, the playwright, mentioned here in a single brisk sentence of household/social news, consistent with his established place in Chekhov's circle (first appearance).

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 14 September 1891. Moscow. §4 Your editorship

  Tikhonov had evidently taken on an editorial post at a periodical -- prompting Chekhov's half-joking editorial "testament" in this same paragraph -- which by \S8 appears to be connected to the journal "Sever", the sample issue of which Chekhov asks Tikhonov to send him.

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 14 September 1891. Moscow. §6 Your dramatic affairs

  A standing joke of Chekhov's theatrical-world correspondence with Tikhonov, a playwright, inquiring after his current plays and productions; compare the similar teasing inquiry after Tikhonov's fame and stage fortunes in the earlier letter (\S7).

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 11 October 1891. Moscow. §3 officially confirmed as editor

  Refers to Tikhonov's formal confirmation in an editorial post -- evidently at the journal "Sever", the same editorship Chekhov had already been joking about in the earlier 14 September 1891 letter (\S4, \S8).

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 21 November 1891. Moscow. §3 you're the editor, the chief, so to speak -- it's your call

  Chekhov defers, half-teasingly, to Tikhonov's new editorial authority over "Sever," continuing the running joke of his mock-serious editorial advice to Tikhonov in (\S4) and his congratulations on the confirmed appointment in (\S3).

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 21 November 1891. Moscow. §4 Is it interesting being an editor? Not bored with it yet?

  A further needling follow-up on Tikhonov's new post at "Sever," in the same vein as Chekhov's earlier congratulatory joke about the "Order of Such-and-Such" in (\S3).

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 21 November 1891. Moscow. §8 Keep well, uncle

  Chekhov addresses Tikhonov with the affectionate nickname "dyadya" (дядя, "uncle"), a running joke in their correspondence with no basis in actual kinship; this is its first occurrence in the surviving letters to Tikhonov collected here.

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 8 December 1891. Moscow. §3 On the 30th of November, dear Vladimir Alekseyevich, I sent you a story -- ten days have passed now, and from you not a voice, not a sigh

  This letter is a direct follow-up to (30 November 1891), in which Chekhov sent Tikhonov a story for \emph{Sever} along with a request for proofs and an advance (there \S3-4, \S6); ten days having passed with no reply, Chekhov here chases both the story's fate and the money.

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 8 December 1891. Moscow. §3 You let slip once, in one of your letters, that one can get it \"in advance too.\"

  Chekhov recalls an offhand remark from an earlier, non-surviving letter of Tikhonov's about advances being available from \emph{Sever}, and now presses him to make good on it -- typical of the frank, transactional joking that runs through this correspondence about fees, proofs, and prompt payment.

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 14 December 1891. Moscow. §3 the letter of yours you mention I have not received

  A small housekeeping note typical of this correspondence's brisk, businesslike opening moves (cf., \S3, chasing a story and an advance after ten days of silence): before turning to the real business of the letter, Chekhov clears up that a letter Tikhonov refers to never reached him.

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 10 January 1892. Moscow. §7 The name-day man of your heart

  A mock-formal, affectionate sign-off in place of the usual "Yours" (cf., \S8, "Ваш А. Чехов"/"Yours, A. Chekhov"), playing on the convention of wishing someone well on their name day -- here inverted so that Chekhov casts himself as the honoree of Tikhonov's affection, in the same bantering register that runs through this whole correspondence.

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 3 March 1890. Moscow. §3 Vladimir Alekseyevich

  Vladimir Alekseevich Tikhonov (1857-1914), playwright and journalist, and a fellow member with Chekhov of the reading committee of the Society of Russian Dramatic Writers and Opera Composers referred to just below as "the Commission." Chekhov had earlier written to thank him for a book with a flattering inscription; this letter shows the acquaintance grown warmer and more collegial.

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 25 December 1890. Moscow. §3 favorite of the muses

  Translates "любимец муз" (favorite/darling of the muses), a mock-grandiose epithet for Tikhonov as playwright, opening the letter's run of comically inflated holiday wishes.

• To V. A. Tikhonov, 13 January 1891. Petersburg. §3 Your Squirearchical Health

  Translates "Ваше помещичье здравие," a mock-formal salutation coined on the pattern of honorific titles such as "Ваше превосходительство" ("Your Excellency"), substituting "помещичье" ("squirely," "landowner's") for the usual rank -- a running joke playing on Tikhonov's status as a landed proprietor.

• Notebooks. Diaries §3581 Tikhonov, Al. Al.

  Grouped in this address list under a variant initial with Vladimir Alexeyevich Tikhonov (1857-1914), playwright and editor, whom Chekhov saw in Petersburg in July 1891 (\S4058).

• Notebooks. Diaries §4058 Vl. Tikhonov

  See the note at \S3581/\S1651 -- Vladimir Alexeyevich Tikhonov, playwright, seen by Chekhov in Petersburg complaining of ill health.