To V. A. Tikhonov, 19 January 1889. Petersburg.

1 A very short note of 19 January 1889, written from Petersburg to Vladimir Alekseevich Tikhonov, the playwright and editor already established in this corpus through the 1888 correspondence. Chekhov has just arrived in the city and is letting Tikhonov know where he is staying, in the hope of arranging a meeting.

2 After the dateline (1), the two-sentence body (2) announces Chekhov’s arrival in Petersburg – addressing Tikhonov by the joking epithet "the Russian Sardou" – reports that he is lodging at the same place as on his previous visit, and says he would be glad to see him if given his exact address. The signature (3) is followed by a one-line aside on his mood, "listless" (4). The remainder of the note (5-8) reproduces the envelope: the label "On the back" (5), Chekhov’s own return address split across two lines, "Petersburg" and "Pushkinskaya, 19, apt. 26" (6-7), and the addressee line, "To Vladimir Alekseevich Tikhonov" (8) – the identical Pushkinskaya 19/26 address already seen on the envelope of the 2 December 1888 note to Tikhonov, confirming this as his settled Petersburg address across the winter of 1888-89.