To Al. P. Chekhov, 19 March 1887. Moscow.

1 Written on 19 March 1887 in Moscow to Chekhov’s elder brother Alexander ("Al. P."), who lived at that time in the Korneyev house in St. Petersburg and worked, somewhat unreliably, for Suvorin’s newspaper. With his own departure for the south imminent (he was heading to Taganrog and the steppe, in part the trip that would feed "The Steppe"), Chekhov is handing off editorial supervision of a forthcoming story collection – what would become "In the Twilight" – to Alexander, and using the occasion to badger, tease, and instruct him in roughly equal measure.

2 The letter opens with characteristic mock-abuse ("Nonentity!") and moves through a set of brisk practical instructions – proofreading, a non-familiar covering letter to be drafted for an editor named Troitsky or Valrond, a demand for twice-weekly letters – before appending, almost as an afterthought, the actual production circular for the book: trim size and typeface to match a Russian edition of Poe, the proposed title, the dedication to Grigorovich, the exact table of contents in order, which stories to cut first if space runs short, and even the back-cover advertising copy for "Motley Tales." The embedded circular gives the letter an unusual mixed form, part personal note, part publishing memo, and offers a rare direct look at Chekhov managing his own book production through his brother as proxy.