To M. M. Dyukovsky, 17 February 1886. Moscow.

1 A short, jocular letter of 17 February 1886 from Chekhov in Moscow to Mikhail Mikhailovich Dyukovsky, a family friend and sometime lender of small sums. Chekhov opens by joking that Dyukovsky can sell his autograph for a fortune in a decade or two, asks him to check Novoye Vremya (Suvorin’s paper, for which Chekhov had just begun writing) for any notice of his stories, and closes by asking to borrow 25 rubles, since he has "nothing but inspiration and literary fame" and no firewood.

2 The letter captures the precarious economics of Chekhov’s early career just as his association with Suvorin’s influential Novoye Vremya was beginning — a turning point he treats here with self-deprecating humor rather than solemnity, mixing real financial need with playful exaggeration ("I’m devilishly rich now!").