To N. A. Leikin, 23 October 1886. Moscow.

1 Written in Moscow on 23 October 1886 (though, by Chekhov’s own wry note, not actually posted until the 27th), this letter goes to Nikolai Alexandrovich Leikin, editor of the Petersburg humor magazine "Oskolki" and Chekhov’s chief editor-patron in these years. It is a characteristic miscellany of literary business and gossip: a report on the eccentric poet Liodor Palmin (an old crony given to talk of gods and the moon, and to drink), confirmation of a received fee, news of a cooling relationship with the editor Khudekov of "Peterburgskaya Gazeta," a new offer from "Vsemirnaya Illyustratsiya," an inquiry about the publisher Fyodorov and his "Cheap Library," a request to be told when the elder writer Dmitry Grigorovich returns from abroad, plans for Leikin’s visit to Moscow, and a candid critique of Chekhov’s own story "The Bogey" set against praise for Leikin’s own "Holiday" story. It closes with greetings and a coda about the poet Levinsky’s irritation over a poem Leikin had printed.

2 The letter is a vivid sample of the working correspondence that sustained Chekhov’s early career: money, deadlines, editors, and shop talk among writers, shot through with his habitual humor (the wallet "in consumption") and his sharp, practical eye as a critic of his own and others’ work – he can praise a colleague’s story while pinpointing the one false note in it.