To N. A. Leikin, 7 September 1886. Voskresensk.

1 A short, businesslike note written on September 7, 1886, from the village of Voskresensk (near Moscow, where Chekhov spent the summer visiting his brother Ivan), to the publisher Nikolai Leikin, editor of the Petersburg humor magazine Oskolki ("Fragments"), for which Chekhov wrote prolifically in these years. Chekhov thanks Leikin for help with a money matter – 70 roubles sent by his father had just arrived – reports that he is departing Voskresensk as summer ends, gives his new Moscow address, and describes writing the letter itself while sitting in on a social call paid by a garrulous retired officer. He closes with a stray, half-joking question about plant names.

2 The letter is a minor but characteristic specimen of Chekhov’s practical correspondence with Leikin, who functioned as both editor and something of a financial intermediary for the Chekhov family in this period. Its value lies less in any single revelation than in the texture it adds to the record of Chekhov’s daily life in 1886 – his itinerant summers, his reliance on Leikin’s goodwill, and the wry, observational habit of mind that surfaces even in a throwaway closing line.