To I. L. Leontyev, 14 August 1888. Sumy.

1 Written from Sumy on 14 August 1888 to the writer Ivan Leontyevich Leontyev, who published under the pen name Shcheglov and whom Chekhov addresses here, as often, by the nicknames "Jean" and "captain." The letter follows on his summer travels through the Crimea and the Caucasus, much of it as a guest of the publisher Aleksey Suvorin.

2 Chekhov recounts his travels and his stay with Suvorin, then a frightening episode in Baku, where Suvorin’s son received a telegram warning of diphtheria in the family and the elder Suvorin passed anxious days awaiting further word. He gives his travel plans, chides Shcheglov for sending a registered letter, asks him to forward a copy of his play "The Theatrical Sparrow," complains of a reluctance to return to Moscow, offers a brief rural vignette of carts and a colt outside his window, and closes with a half-joking invitation and farewell.