To I. L. Leontyev, 1 January 1888. Moscow.

1 Written from Moscow on New Year’s Day 1888, this letter answers the writer Ivan Leontiev, who published under the pen name I. Shcheglov and whom Chekhov nicknamed "Alba" as a running joke about his difficult handwriting. Both men wrote for the humor magazine "Oskolki," edited by Nikolai Leikin, and Chekhov uses the letter to give Shcheglov practical advice: adopt a pseudonym for his lighter pieces rather than sign them "Shcheglov," and cite Chekhov’s own example if Leikin objects. He also passes on a message for Alexei Pleshcheev, an editor at the journal "Severny Vestnik," about the "steppe story" Chekhov was then drafting – the work that would become his novella "The Steppe."

2 The letter is characteristically dense with names from Chekhov’s literary and theatrical circle: the writer Bibikov, the actors Vladimir Davydov and Ippolit Kiselevsky (whose falling-out Chekhov reports), and the young writer Vladimir Korolenko, about whom Chekhov asks Shcheglov to clip any New Year’s newspaper mentions. Shcheglov’s play "Mignon" draws warm, joking praise, with Chekhov urging him toward a full drama next. The mix of affectionate insult, professional counsel, and literary gossip is typical of Chekhov’s letters to younger writers he had taken under his wing.