To Al. P. Chekhov, 13 August 1889. Sumy.
Ал. П. ЧЕХОВУ, 13 августа 1889 г. Сумы.
Headnote
A short, brisk errand-letter from Chekhov to his elder brother Alexander ("Al. P. Chekhov"), written from the Lintvaryov estate at Luka near Sumy, where the family was summering in 1889. Alexander had recently married (his second, common-law union, to Natalya Golden); Chekhov’s opening line – "in gratitude for the fact that I did not forbid you to marry" – is a typical piece of the mock-authoritarian needling that runs through their correspondence, with Anton cast as the exasperated elder managing his chaotic, alcoholic brother’s affairs from a distance.
The letter’s business is entirely practical: Alexander, who worked at the St. Petersburg newspaper "Novoye Vremya" (New Times) and its comic supplement "Oskolki" (Splinters), edited by Nikolai Leikin, is instructed to go to the Novoye Vremya bookshop, collect 25 copies each of Chekhov’s story collections "V sumerkakh" ("In the Twilight," 1887) and "Rasskazy" ("Stories," 1888), and ship them to a bookseller in Yalta, Daniil Mikhailovich Gorodetsky, bundling the parcel in with one Leikin was already sending via the "Oskolki" office to save on freight. Alexander is also told to collect and forward Chekhov’s book royalties, as Chekhov reports being completely out of money and unable to travel. The letter closes with a comic curse threatening to sour Alexander’s honeymoon with "sal-ammoniac, alum, and vitriol" if he fails to comply, and signs off with the ironic title "Your brother and benefactor" – a recurring self-mocking signature Chekhov used with Alexander.