To I. L. Leontyev, 21–22 March 1889. Moscow.

1 A letter of 21 or 22 March 1889 from Moscow to Ivan Leontyevich Leontyev, who wrote under the pen name Ivan Shcheglov – playwright, prose writer, and one of Chekhov’s closest theatrical correspondents, addressed here by the family nickname "Jean." The letter continues an ongoing exchange about Shcheglov’s restless activity, the fate of Chekhov’s one-act farce "The Proposal," and Shcheglov’s ambition to found his own theater.

2 Chekhov opens by teasing Shcheglov’s "fizziness" – his habit of juggling a shop job, prose writing, and now a theatrical venture at once. He then takes up a nagging notice from a man named Kostromitinov demanding an answer about "The Proposal": Chekhov has already written on the subject and now formally authorizes Shcheglov to stage it, provided the actor Davydov – who holds first claim on the piece – declines it; if Davydov does not want it, Shcheglov may do as he likes, on the joking condition that he mount it at least five times. Chekhov then turns to the larger project of a writers’-own theater, warning Shcheglov not to approach Suvorin for five thousand rubles: however theater-mad Suvorin is, his money is tied up in his Petersburg house, his Feodosia dacha, and a new estate near Kharkov, and in any case any request for funds would have to pass the "iron veto" of Suvorin’s business manager Kolomnin. Chekhov half-jokingly promises to supply the five thousand himself in three or four years if he lives, and suggests a joint-stock arrangement (on the model of a "Kharkov Association") as a more realistic route. Three brief closing items follow: a note that he will send a copy of "Ivanov" to a contact named Bazarov, greetings to Shcheglov’s wife with the wish that her husband soon become as successful as the Moscow theater manager Korsh, and the signature.