To A. N. Pleshcheyev, 12 December 1889. Moscow.

A short business-and-affection note to Alexei Nikolaevich Pleshcheyev, the poet and elder man of letters who by this period had become one of Chekhov’s closest correspondents and something of a literary patron (he was also, at this time, poetry editor and a senior figure at the journal "Severny Vestnik" / associated circles in Petersburg). Chekhov writes from the Moscow office of the magazine "Artist" ("Артист"), passing along that publication’s business message to Pleshcheyev about a stalled play translation, then shifts into a personal register: he is ill with influenza, his sister Maria ("my sister") is also unwell, and he is trying to plan a trip to see Pleshcheyev in Petersburg either before 18 December or after the New Year.

(1) dateline; (2) a bare date/month shorthand ("XII, 12"); (3) opening address, explaining he is writing from the "Artist" office at that office’s request; (4) the office’s first point – Pleshcheyev’s translation (of a play, for the theater) arrived too late, so a rival translation by "Mattern" is already being typeset; (5) the office’s second point – a request for instructions on whom to send the translation to, since the Abramova theater is no longer run by Abramova herself but by a partnership/collective headed by Solovtsov, Charsky, and Kiselevsky; (6) a personal passage on Chekhov’s and his sister’s illness and his wish to visit Pleshcheyev, with a firm promise to call on him the day he arrives in Petersburg; (7) closing greetings to Pleshcheyev’s family; (8) a promise of a longer letter if the visit doesn’t happen soon; (9) signature.