To V. A. Tikhonov, 31 May 1889. Sumy.

1 Written from Sumy on 31 May 1889 to Vladimir Alekseevich Tikhonov, the playwright and editor Chekhov had been corresponding with since 1888. A short, bantering letter from the Lintvaryov estate near Sumy, mixing a joke about his own remoteness from the capitals, a report on his brother Nikolai’s illness, a progress report on his novel and an abandoned comedy, encouragement about Tikhonov’s own stalled playwriting, a brief item of literary business, and a run of quick closing quips.

2 After the double dateline (1-2), Chekhov opens by teasing Tikhonov for addressing his last letter as though Chekhov were off in Paris or Constantinople, when in fact he is confined to the Lintvaryov estate at Sumy by his brother’s illness (3) – the tubercular "brother, the painter" being Nikolai Chekhov. He gives a wry account of the weather and of visitors (Suvorin, Svobodin, neighbors) relieving the tedium (4), then reports slow work on his novel, with a joking dig at one Sokovnin’s dinner-table praise of him (5), and a comedy begun and abandoned after two acts as too dull to finish (6). He turns to consoling Tikhonov over his own creative "languishing," citing the recent Odessa production of Tikhonov’s "Without the Yoke and the Flatiron" as proof the play was unfairly self-deprecated, and offers a resigned defense of professional unevenness – seven mediocre plays for every three good ones (7). Asked to intervene with Jean Shcheglov and steer him back to fiction, Chekhov demurs, arguing passion can only be answered by passion, not admonition, and that Shcheglov should be left to come round on his own (8). He reports a recent committee sitting of the Society of Dramatic Writers in generally favorable terms (9), jokes about the weather gap between Sumy and Petersburg (10), needles Tikhonov about marriage with a stock comic image of a "pockmarked wife" (11), asks after his drinking habits (12), and closes with good wishes, family regards, the signature, and a final note that he will leave for the Caucasus if his brother’s health improves (13-15).