To Al. P. Chekhov, 24 October 1891. Moscow.

Dated 24 October 1891, from Moscow, to Alexander Pavlovich Chekhov, Anton’s elder brother.

Chekhov opens by shrugging off complaints that his work appears in "New Times" on Wednesdays and Tuesdays – he says it makes no difference to him. He explains that he gave a story to the paper because he was in its debt, and grumbles that had it not been for that debt the story would have run whole in a "thick journal," paying better and sparing him the resentment of colleagues who see his regular newspaper slot as a monopoly. He is caustic about that resentment: he points out that he went nearly two years without publishing anything, leaving the Monday and Wednesday slots open to other regular contributors, and asks Alexander to tell Suvorin he is willing to give up the Wednesday slot entirely, since neither it nor his broader collaboration with "New Times" has done him any good as a writer – his personal relations with Suvorin, he insists, do not depend on it. He then briefly addresses money matters: Alexander should stop drawing on the newspaper office’s funds, since Chekhov has arranged for that money to go toward paying down his own debt to the paper. He complains, in a single exasperated line, of having no money and nowhere to get any, and dismisses as mere gossip a rumor that he is marrying a rich woman. The letter closes with brief, conventional family notes – everyone at home is well – and a request to pass on his regards to Alexander’s children and wife, signed simply "Your A. Chekhov."

The tone moves from irritated and sardonic (the newspaper-politics complaint) to flatly weary (the money troubles) to perfunctory warmth (the closing family greetings), all within a few lines – characteristic of Chekhov’s terse, multi-register notes to Alexander.