To N. A. Leikin, 3 February 1886. Moscow.

1 Written from Moscow on February 3, 1886, to Nikolai Alexandrovich Leikin, editor of the humor magazine Oskolki (Fragments) and Chekhov’s principal editor and publisher in these years. The letter is brisk, businesslike correspondence about the assembly of Chekhov’s first collection: he confirms he will publish under his early pen name "A. Chekhonte" rather than his own name, proposes the title Motley Tales, defers to Leikin on typeface and a final proof, and encloses a new story touching on students that he insists contains nothing politically "illiberal." He closes with news of fine sleighing weather in Moscow and affectionate greetings to Leikin’s household, down to two of his dogs.

2 The letter is a valuable window onto the practical mechanics of Chekhov’s early literary career: the choice of pseudonym, the haggling over a book title with fellow writer Liodor Palmin, and the anxious courting of a censor’s sensibilities ("nothing illiberal") in the tightly watched Russian press of the 1880s. Pestrye rasskazy (Motley Tales) would indeed become the title of his first book later that year.