To Al. P. Chekhov, 12–13 October 1889. Moscow.
Ал. П. ЧЕХОВУ, 12 или 13 октября 1889 г. Москва.
Headnote
Written in Moscow in October 1889, to Chekhov’s elder brother Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov ("Sasha"), then living in St. Petersburg and working as a journalist and editor at Suvorin’s newspaper Novoye Vremya (New Time). Alexander had married (his second wife, Natalya Golden) not long before; the letter’s opening address, "magnificent and married brother," teases him about the new status. Chekhov was then thirty and Alexander was functioning in Petersburg as a kind of informal fixer and errand-runner for him – tracking down back issues, ferrying news, relaying theater business – a role this letter exercises in miniature.
The letter is almost entirely practical. Chekhov is assembling a new story collection and is missing the second installment of his 1888 story "Житейская мелочь" ("A Trifle of Life" / "A Trivial Incident," published in Novoye Vremya no. 4404 and a following issue); he asks Alexander to either find and send the actual newspaper issue or have someone hand-copy the text, however roughly, as long as it is fast. He asks after the publisher Alexey Suvorin’s expected arrival, reports brief family news (his father Pavel Yegorovich "getting on in years"; the household in good health), sends teasing regards to Alexander’s wife and children, and closes with news that the imperial theater directorate in Petersburg has rejected his new play – almost certainly an early reference to what would become The Wood Demon (the ancestor of Uncle Vanya) – and refers him to the actor Pavel Svobodin for details.