To Al. P. Chekhov, 12 August 1887. Babkino.

1 Written on 12 August 1887 from Babkino, the country estate near Voskresensk where the Chekhov family was summering, this short note goes to Anton’s elder brother Alexander in Petersburg. Its occasion is the release of Chekhov’s story collection "V sumerkakh" ("In the Twilight"), which newspaper advertisements said had appeared some nine days earlier – news Chekhov had received from no other source, prompting him to chase down his author’s copies and the promised newspaper announcements through Alexander, who handled such practical errands for him in the capital.

2 The letter is brief and businesslike, mixing the book inquiry with a sharp aside about a debt Alexander apparently owed him and had been apologizing for too persistently – Chekhov brushes the apology off as overwrought – and closing with routine family news (their brother Nikolay’s health, everyone well) before an address block giving Alexander’s Petersburg address. The mock-formal Latin sign-off "Tuus frater" ("Your brother") is characteristic of the joking Latin tags Chekhov used with his more literate correspondents.