To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 31 March 1888. Moscow.

1 Written from Moscow on March 31, 1888, this letter follows hard on the heels of another Chekhov had sent to the poet and editor Alexey Nikolaevich Pleshcheyev earlier the same day, after Pleshcheyev’s brother had called on him with a letter. It responds point by point to news of the funeral of the writer Vsevolod Garshin, who had died by suicide in Petersburg on March 24.

2 Chekhov is angry that a minor writer named Leman spoke at the graveside, and defends "Novoye Vremya" and its publisher Suvorin against Pleshcheyev’s suspicion that their absence from the funeral was deliberate; he also gently corrects Pleshcheyev’s jab at the Novoye Vremya columnist known by his pen name Zhitel (Alexander Dyakov). He explains he has already committed to Barantsevich’s memorial collection for Garshin and cannot also join the one Pleshcheyev and his wife, Anna Mikhailovna, are organizing. He closes by looking forward to seeing Pleshcheyev in Moscow on his way south, and admits, almost as an aside, that he barely knew Garshin at all.