To A. S. Suvorin, 20 November 1889. Moscow.

Written in Moscow in the autumn of 1889 to Alexei Suvorin – the wealthy publisher of Novoye Vremya, Chekhov’s closest correspondent and confidant through the late 1880s and 1890s, and a frequent literary collaborator and patron. This is a characteristic specimen of their correspondence: a rapid sequence of short, loosely linked items – literary business, gossip, theater news, family news, teasing – rather than a single sustained topic, which is normal for this exchange and not a sign of composite authorship.

Content, roughly by section: Chekhov returns two submitted stories to Suvorin with blunt editorial verdicts, describing how he reworked one ("The Songstress," proposing the title "Songbirds") by rearranging its structure and rewriting its ending (secs. 3-4); a digression on the chorus girls of an operetta troupe he had known professionally (as their doctor) in Yalta that summer turns frankly sexual and clinical in the same breath (sec. 4); he relays a request from the mediocre writer Levinsky about the fate of an article on cremation (sec. 5); a request from Prince A. I. Sumbatov (the playwright and actor known as Yuzhin) for bibliography on "Macbeth" (sec. 6); mock dread of a coming cholera epidemic and the toll it takes on doctors, Chekhov’s own trained profession (sec. 7); an invitation to Suvorin to come see Chekhov’s play "The Wood Demon" (Leshy, forerunner of "Uncle Vanya") opening 10 December, plus a review-in-brief of a production of Hugo’s "Hernani" at the Maly Theater (sec. 8); a joke about the writer Leikin’s unimpressed verdict on the 1889 Paris Exposition (sec. 9); a dig at the playwright Shcheglov ("Jean," his pen name) and his new play (sec. 10); a one-line family update on Chekhov’s brother Mikhail’s new civil-service post (sec. 11); an accounting item – as an officer of the Society of Dramatic Writers, Chekhov reports a substantial royalty sum (500+ rubles) owed to Suvorin for the play "Tatyana Repina," which Suvorin had written (sec. 12); a Committee/charter note (sec. 13); a teasing aside about Suvorin’s daughter Nastya needing "gymnastics" rather than height (sec. 14); closing regards and signature (secs. 15-16).