To N. A. Leikin, 25 February 1887. Moskva*.

1 Written from Moscow on 25 February 1887 to Nikolai Leikin, editor of the "Peterburgskaya Gazeta" and "Oskolki," for whom Chekhov was at this time a regular contributor and correspondent. The letter opens with a mock-medical riff on Leikin’s complaints of overeating and weight, prescribing the "Zakharyin milk diet" (named for the celebrated Moscow physician Grigory Zakharyin) with comic seriousness, before turning to a rapid string of short business and gossip items typical of Chekhov’s letters to his editor: inquiries after mutual acquaintances (the poet Liodor Palmin, the writer Viktor Bilibin, the illustrator Alexander Germonius), a complaint about unauthorized reprinting of his stories in the "Odessa News," and a query about the progress of his forthcoming book.

2 Notable here is Chekhov’s characteristic compression – seventeen short, almost telegraphic sections covering medicine, office politics, theater criticism (a passing note on the actor Ernst von Possart’s Manfred), and the weather – and a wry aside on Leikin’s own play "Satire and the Nymph," gently mocking its overcrowded plot. The letter closes with a small scriptural flourish ("He that is able to receive it, let him receive it," echoing Matthew 19:12) used purely for comic effect.