To Al. P. Chekhov, 8–12 July 1887. Moscow.

1 A short, hurried note from Chekhov in Moscow, written sometime between 8 and 12 July 1887, to his elder brother Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, then working as a journalist in Petersburg. The two brothers corresponded constantly and informally, often trading news, needling each other, and handling small errands and money matters on each other’s behalf.

2 The letter is brief business wrapped in familiar banter: Chekhov opens with the mock-Biblical greeting "Son of dust!", asks after a book Alexander was apparently supposed to report on, and asks him to check on the state of his accounts at the office of the newspaper "New Times" (Novoye Vremya), to which Chekhov had just sold a story, and to forward any money owed, since he is broke. He complains briefly of the summer heat in Moscow, asks whether a parcel arrived, and signs off asking for a fuller letter in return – a glimpse of the day-to-day financial precariousness and close, teasing correspondence between the brothers in the mid-1880s.