To P. P. Gnedich, 15 December 1888. Petersburg.
П. П. ГНЕДИЧУ, 15 декабря 1888 г. Петербург.
Headnote
1 Written from Petersburg on December 15, 1888, this short note is, as far as this corpus shows, the first letter Chekhov addressed to Pyotr Petrovich Gnedich (1855-1925), the Russian playwright, novelist, art historian, and Shakespeare translator who was then a contributor to and editorial figure at the Petersburg illustrated weekly "Sever" ("North"). Chekhov was in Petersburg in mid-December 1888 (he had come north for the premiere of "Ivanov" at the Alexandrinsky Theater on December 19), which places this note within that visit, on the eve of his departure back to Moscow ("today,").
2 The letter is a brief, practical apology: Chekhov had waved off Gnedich’s messenger without checking the parcel and, in doing so, accidentally walked off with a folder belonging to Gnedich – almost certainly manuscript or proof material connected to "Sever." He promises to have it delivered back to the magazine’s offices before he leaves the city, thanks Gnedich for a book he had evidently sent along, and closes by passing on the postal address of the painter Isaac Levitan, Chekhov’s close friend, so that Gnedich (or whoever needed it) could write to him care of the "Anglia" furnished rooms on Tverskaya in Moscow.