To N. A. Leikin, 10 December 1884. Moscow.

This brief note to Nikolai Leikin, editor of the humor magazine Oskolki ("Fragments") and Chekhov’s principal publisher in these years, is one of the earliest surviving references to the pulmonary hemorrhage that would eventually be diagnosed as tuberculosis; Chekhov, himself a physician, describes the bleeding with characteristic wry detachment even as he downplays its seriousness. The letter mixes this health report with the everyday business of freelance journalism – chasing an overdue fee, needling Leikin over an inaccurate illustration, relaying a contributor’s complaint, and asking after mutual acquaintances (the poet Liodor Palmin among them).

The letter contains an oblique, coded reference ("the mask of Ulysses") to a piece Chekhov had ghostwritten or otherwise wished kept anonymous, which Palmin had apparently let slip to a rival publication.