To F. A. Chervinsky, 25 October 1891. Moscow.

Dated 25 October 1891, from Moscow, to Fyodor Alekseyevich Chervinsky, a poet and playwright.

Chekhov reports on an inconclusive conversation about the publishing terms for Chervinsky’s book, held first with Alexei Suvorin and then with Suvorin’s son, both then in Moscow – nothing definite came of it, Chekhov admits, in part because he himself spoke only in vague generalities, not having been given hard figures (cost, first payment, installment schedule). He says he doesn’t know whether the installment terms depend on a man named Neupokoev, and confesses that at a distance he is as powerless in the matter as Chervinsky is himself. He advises Chervinsky to stop waiting and go to the printing house in person, and promises only that he will read the finished book with pleasure. He had hoped to be in Petersburg in November, where he might have helped in person, but his plans changed and he will stay in Moscow until December.

He adds a note on a different matter: the "Sbornik" (a miscellany/ anthology) is being published by the newspaper "Russkiye Vedomosti," sparing no expense to make it a solid, appealing edition, and that Dmitry Nikolayevich Anuchin is the one collecting material for it, at an address in Devichye Pole, the Morozova house. He closes with a teasing personal note asking after the "blue-eyed nymphs" Chervinsky had written about that summer, urging him to marry before it’s too late, then a brief remark on his own nerves and the dullness of Moscow, and his signature.

The tone is practical and a little rueful about his own lack of influence in Suvorin’s business affairs, opening into the familiar teasing register toward the letter’s end.