To Al. P. Chekhov, 2 May 1889. Sumy.

1 A short, joking letter of 2 May 1889 from the Lintvaryov estate at Sumy to his elder brother Alexander ("Sasha"), written a few weeks into the Chekhov family’s 1889 summer stay on the Psyol river – the same stay during which brother Nikolai’s tuberculosis, first reported worsening in early April, continued its decline toward his death that June.

2 After the dateline (1-2) and a mock-solemn salutation (3), Chekhov describes his sluggish mood, blaming it partly on his own age and partly on Nikolai’s constant coughing (4). He asks Alexander to have a colleague at his newspaper collect back issues of two Odessa papers and post them (5), jokes about the local Sumy theater awaiting Alexander’s own conjuring talents (6), chides him for not writing (7), sends greetings to Alexander’s household (8), and asks to see the play Alexander is writing, offering avuncular literary advice in exchange for good behavior (9). He closes with a mock-formal complaint of Alexander’s negligence and signs with a joking seniority title (10-11).