To F. A. Kumanin, 5 September 1889. Moscow.

1 Date and addressee. Moscow, 5 September 1889. Written to Fyodor Alexandrovich Kumanin (1855–1896), editor of the Moscow literary-artistic journal Artist, who had evidently written to Chekhov asking for material – specifically permission to reprint one or more of his one-act plays – for the new journal.

2 A short business letter about reprint rights. Chekhov explains that his vaudeville The Proposal (Предложение) has already appeared in Novoye Vremya (No. 4732) under a prior commitment to Alexei Suvorin, and that he cannot authorize a reprint in Artist without Suvorin’s consent (and only then with an editorial note disclosing the prior publication) since he has already been paid for it. He then offers instead his other short play, Swan Song (Kalkhas) (Лебединая песня (Калхас)), noting it had previously appeared only in abridged form (the first monologue only) in Pyotr Kicheyev’s short-lived journal Sezon, and that a copy can be had either from the theatrical agent Rassokhin or from Chekhov himself. He closes by relaying a request from fellow playwright V. S. Likhachev, who has a five-act original drama and wants terms from Kumanin, and asks Kumanin to reply so he can pass along the information.