To N. A. Leikin, 31 March 1886. Moscow.

1 Written from Moscow on 31 March 1886 to Nikolai Alexandrovich Leikin, editor of the humor magazine Oskolki (Splinters) and Chekhov’s publisher and friend at this stage of his career. Chekhov chides Leikin for his long silence, joking that he has become too absorbed in his country estate at Tosna, and asks after a printing cliché (an illustration block) he had sent him.

2 The letter’s real news is literary: Chekhov asks Leikin to add his real name, "A. P. Chekhov," in parentheses beside his famous pseudonym "A. Chekhonte" on the title page and in advertisements for his forthcoming book. He reports that Dmitry Grigorovich – the elder novelist whose praise earlier in 1886 had jolted Chekhov into taking his writing seriously – has written urging him to drop the pseudonym altogether. The letter captures the exact moment Chekhov begins shedding "Chekhonte" for his own name.