To R. R. Golike, 5 February 1886. Moscow.

1 Written in Moscow on 5 February 1886 to Roman Romanovich Golike, a publisher and printer with whom Chekhov was arranging the production of an early book. The letter is dashed off from the studio of the architect and designer Franz Schechtel (Fyodor Shekhtel), who was pressing Chekhov for the book’s exact dimensions so he could finalize a vignette design. Chekhov relays Schechtel’s impatience, confirms his own address for correspondence, and thanks Golike for promising to print the volume on fine, French-style paper. He closes with regards to two other associates in the printing and publishing world, Ivan Grek-Bilibin and Nikolai Leikin.

2 The letter is a small but vivid window into the practical, collaborative mechanics behind Chekhov’s early book production – printer, publisher, and designer coordinating over paper stock and layout – and into his friendship with Schechtel, later renowned as one of Russia’s leading Art Nouveau architects. Its brisk, business-like tone is characteristic of Chekhov’s working correspondence of this period.