To P. G. Rozanov, 1885. Moscow.

Written from Moscow in the second half of October 1885, this short, bantering letter goes to Pavel Grigoryevich Rozanov, a physician and friend from Chekhov’s medical circle. Chekhov opens by fending off a half-joking accusation: he hasn’t stolen Rozanov’s copy of "Tambov District" (a reference book on the district’s zemstvo medicine), only borrowed it as raw material for a newspaper piece he has since stalled on. He then gives Rozanov his new address on Yakimanka Street – he has just moved from near Sobolev Lane – and asks that it be passed along to their mutual friend Sergei Pavlovich, with an invitation, put in mock formal terms, to call on him whenever he’s next in Moscow.

The letter turns briefly to gossip – a question about whether Rozanov is to be married – before breaking off mid-sentence, a small reminder that these were quick, dashed-off personal notes rather than polished prose. Chekhov signs off, then adds a closing postscript-like section promising to make amends for holding onto the borrowed book so long: he will have it bound and pass along a stack of newspaper clippings on the question of doctors’ welfare, a subject evidently of shared professional interest to the two men. Slight and occasional as it is, the letter is a characteristic glimpse of Chekhov’s easy correspondence with his fellow doctors in the mid-1880s.