To N. A. Leikin, 15–20 December 1886. Moscow.

1 A short year-end note from Chekhov to Nikolai Leikin, the editor of Oskolki (Fragments), for whom Chekhov wrote much of his early comic fiction. The opening lines of the letter are lost. Chekhov encloses a Christmastide story written during a bout of insomnia, jokes that he is done producing "works" for the year (quoting Turgenev’s "enough!"), asks Leikin to prod the illustrator Nikolai for overdue drawings, sends greetings to Leikin’s household, and promises a New Year’s sketch of Moscow life.

2 Slight as it is, the letter is a good specimen of Chekhov’s brisk, joking correspondence with Leikin during his years as a jobbing contributor to the comic press – part business (chasing an illustrator), part social pleasantry, part self-deprecating aside about his own writing.