To Al. P. Chekhov, 4 April 1888. Moscow.

1 Written from Moscow on 4 April 1888 to Chekhov’s elder brother Alexander, who was then in Petersburg handling business for Chekhov with Alexei Suvorin’s "New Times" publishing house. The letter is a rapid string of urgent, half-joking instructions rather than a sustained narrative.

2 Chekhov demands that Alexander go at once to the "New Times" shop and hurry along two copies of his story collection "In the Twilight," gives instructions on which paper stock to use for the second printing, jokes that he is writing to Suvorin to have Alexander dismissed, and tells him to send the books by registered parcel post – adding that no apology is needed for the imposition, since obeying is simply Alexander’s job.