To N. A. Leikin, 1885. Moscow.

Written from Moscow in late October 1885, this short business letter continues Chekhov’s steady correspondence with Nikolai Alexandrovich Leikin, editor-publisher of the Petersburg humor weekly Oskolki ("Splinters") and Chekhov’s principal editor at the time. Answering Leikin point by point, Chekhov confirms that a drawing has been commissioned from the illustrator Nikolai, thanks Leikin for a promised book and asks that it come by registered wrapper-post rather than parcel, and reminds him, half-joking, of a still-unfulfilled promise of a back issue of Oskolki.

The letter’s most substantial passage is a defense of Chekhov’s working habits: pressed for writing "too little," he explains that he is occupied from morning to night, that he sends editors his rough drafts rather than fair copies except for his "Moscow Life" column (which he labors over) and pieces for Oskolki when a passage needs reworking, and that lighter items – like the piece he encloses with this letter – he simply writes straight through. He closes with a proposal that the Oskolki contributors meet before the new subscription period to confer, a wry note that their friend the poet Liodor Palmin missed a visit, and his signature. It is a small but telling window onto Chekhov’s disciplined, almost assembly-line approach to journeyman writing in the mid-1880s.