To N. A. Leikin, 17 November 1885. Moscow.

Written from Moscow on 17 November 1885, this letter continues Chekhov’s steady business correspondence with Nikolai Alexandrovich Leikin, editor-publisher of the Petersburg humor weekly Oskolki ("Splinters"). It opens on a personal note of real anxiety: his new apartment has proved damp and cold, and Chekhov – already prone to the coughing and blood-spitting that would later be diagnosed as tuberculosis – fears a recurrence if he stays, even as the prospect of another costly move appalls him. He is off the next day to inspect a possible replacement on Yakimanka Street.

The bulk of the letter is magazine business: a wry aside on Leikin’s own interest in a subscription premium, a request that Leikin write directly to a contributor ("Agafopod") whose officials he finds objectionable rather than simply rejecting the work, a note that the illustrator Nikolai is ill and drawings will be delayed, and a pointed complaint about the newspaper "Peterburgskaya gazeta" failing to pay a submitted fee – Chekhov underscores that reliable payment matters to a working writer more than the amount. He closes with plans for a trip to Zvenigorod for the consecration of a new district hospital, a request that Leikin put in a good word with the publisher Khudekov, and a postscript defending the young illustrator Mendelevich as talented despite his youth. A footnote, keyed to the signature, wryly explains that Chekhov’s handwriting has grown more fixed and legible from the sheer volume of medical prescriptions he writes – most of them for free.