To I. L. Leontyev, 16 March 1889. Moscow.

1 Written from Moscow on 16 March 1889 to Ivan Leontyevich Leontyev, the playwright and prose writer who published under the pen name Ivan Shcheglov, already established elsewhere in this corpus as one of Chekhov’s closest theatrical confidants. A short, rapid-fire note mixing business (the distribution of copies of "Ivanov"), a joking proposal, an affectionate sign-off, an irritated aside about marriage gossip, and a one-line postscript-like close.

2 After the double dateline (1-2), Chekhov opens by addressing Shcheglov’s inquiry, apparently made on behalf of a third party ("Bazarov"), about obtaining copies of Chekhov’s play "Ivanov" – here called by its self-mocking nickname "Bolvanov" – for resale; Chekhov says he has no notice of any such request and no hundred copies to spare, but offers 25 that are lying on his windowsill, to be sold at a ruble each with the proceeds going to Svobodin for the Society for Aid to Stage Performers (3). He then tosses off a joking proposal that Shcheglov, by analogy with Moscow’s Korsh Theater, open a "Shcheglov Theater" in Petersburg, insisting – for comic effect – that he means it seriously (4). He closes abruptly for lack of time with an affectionate French endearment (5). A separate, more irritated note follows: gossip that Chekhov is about to marry a wealthy woman has reached him not directly but through general chatter that students are now repeating, which he dismisses with a single contemptuous word, "depravity" (6), before a philosophical shrug that everything in the world is nonsense anyway (7). The letter closes with a comic foreign-flavored signature, "Antoine Tshekof" (8), and a final one-line addition reporting his return from a trip to Kharkov the day before (9).