To A. S. Suvorin, 23 October 1889. Moscow.

Written 23 October 1889 from Moscow to Alexei Sergeyevich Suvorin, the wealthy publisher of the Petersburg newspaper "Novoye Vremya" ("New Time") and Chekhov’s closest correspondent and confidant through the late 1880s and 1890s. As with most of the Suvorin correspondence, the letter is a rapid-fire miscellany of publishing business, literary gossip, and personal remarks, jumping between topics with little transition – typical of Chekhov’s letters to Suvorin rather than any sign of a composite document.

a bundle of manuscripts and illustrations delivered by a visiting Ostrovsky (identified only as "the minister’s brother," i.e. a relative of Mikhail Nikolayevich Ostrovsky, then Minister of State Domains – not the playwright Alexander Ostrovsky); the pestering of the new Moscow theatrical journal "Artist" for permission to reprint Chekhov’s own vaudevilles from "Novoye Vremya," with Chekhov insisting any reprint carry a proper attribution note; warm words for the writer Nikolai Yezhov, now being published by Suvorin, and a half-joking offer by Chekhov to serve as an unofficial fiction editor for "Novoye Vremya," reworking rejected manuscripts (he cites having salvaged a discarded story by the humorist Anatoly Koni into a publishable "Saturday piece," i.e. a subbotnik feature); praise for a Suvorin article on "The Power of the Heart" (Suvorin’s own play) with a caution against mentioning the earlier controversy over his other play "Tatyana Repina," on Caesar’s-wife-must-be-above-suspicion grounds; commentary on the playwright Ivan Shcheglov (Leontyev), scolding him (affectionately, in absentia) for turning his novel "The Gordian Knot" into what Chekhov calls a botched play; a brief aphoristic aside on dueling/suicide over love, prompted by an unspecified prior exchange; a note referring back to an unnamed novella-in-progress of Chekhov’s own and a point about character opinions not constituting a work’s "status" (basis); a wry, self-deprecating remark about his approaching tenth anniversary as a writer (24 December) and mock interest in an imperial court title ("chamberlain" – kamerger); a one-line suggestion that his brother Mikhail (Misha) try writing children’s historical fiction; a one-line note that Misha wants to marry; a greeting regarding a "Verochka Mamysheva"; regards to Suvorin’s wife Anna Ivanovna; the signature; and a closing line about "Gey" (likely a Novoye Vremya staffer or acquaintance) and an invitation to visit Moscow.