To I. A. Bunin, 30 January 1891. Moscow.
И. А. БУНИНУ, 30 января 1891 г. Москва.
Headnote
A short, formal note written on 30 January 1891, the day Chekhov returned to Moscow from his extended stay in Petersburg. He apologizes for the delay in replying and answers a request for a critical opinion of some stories – he disclaims any special authority as a critic, admits he has often been wrong, especially in judging beginning writers, but agrees to look at new, unpublished work.
This is a historically notable first point of documented contact between Chekhov and Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin, the future Nobel laureate (1933), then about twenty years old and just starting out as a writer – hence the careful, slightly formal "Dear Sir" address here, still the tone one would use to an unknown correspondent rather than the warmth of Chekhov’s later letters to Bunin once the two men became friends. The closing address, "Moscow, M. Dmitrovka, the Firgang house," is Chekhov’s own return address (the Moscow apartment building known by its owner’s name, Firgang), not Bunin’s.