4 Magarshack. Chekhov: A Life. 118. [Alexander Chekhov to Anton Chekhov, September 5, 1887.]
5 Pis’ma. Vol. 2. 403.
6 Magarshack. Chekhov: A Life. 118. [To Leykin, September 11, 1887.]
7 Letopis’. 329. [September 12, 1887.]
8 Pis’ma. Vol. 2. 118–120.
9 Translated by Constance Garnett.
10 Simmons. Chekhov: A Biography. 114. [To Suvorin, June 9, 1889.]
11 Pis’ma. 120–121. [To Alexander Chekhov, September 25, 1887.]
12 Pis’ma. 406.
13 Letopis’. 332. [September 26 or 27, 1887.]
14 Pis’ma. 122–123. [To Trefolev, September 30, 1887.]
15 Letopis’. 333–334. [September—first half of October 1887.]
Part 6: Ivanov & Others
1 Translated by Heim and Karlinsky. Anton Chekhov’s Life and Thought: Selected Letters and Commentary. 81–82. [To Suvorin, December 30, 1888.]
October 1887
1 Pis’ma. Vol. 2. 125. [To Ezhov, October 5, 1887.]
2 Ibid., 410.
3 Rayfield. Chekhov: A Life (2021). 185.
4 I am using an out-of-copyright accessible version translated by Marian Fell for quoting and reference. Ivanoff: A Play. https://gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1755/pg1755-images.html.
5 Donald Rayfield has an answer and sees this differently from the way I do: “The play’s sympathy for the Jewish victim is a counterblast to the anti-Semitic letters Chekhov was receiving from Suvorin’s son Aleksei Alekseievich, who saw Jews in Russia as ‘five million barrels of dynamite under the Kremlin,’ as a sexual and financial threat to the nation. If such stories as ‘The Slough’ (‘Mire’) contributed to that view of the Jew, then Ivanov was an act of contrition, for the Jew is seen as victim, not oppressor.” (Rayfield, “Chekhov’s Stories and Plays,” in The Cambridge Companion to Chekhov, 204–205.)
6 Translated by Heim and Karlinsky. Anton Chekhov’s Life and Thought: Selected Letters and Commentary. 76. [To Suvorin, December 30, 1888.]
7 Translated by Heim and Karlinsky. Anton Chekhov’s Life and Thought: Selected Letters and Commentary. 84. [To Suvorin, January 7, 1889.]
8 Pis’ma. Vol. 2. 126–127. [To Alexander Chekhov, October 6 or 7, 1887.]
9 Translated by S. S. Koteliansky and Philip Tomlinson. The Life and Letters of Anton Tchekhov. 90–91. [To Alexander Chekhov, October 10 (or 12), 1887.]
10 Pis’ma. Vol. 2. 414. Chekhov wrote to Suvorin about this work on June 9, 1888: “I think it is still a little too soon to discuss the date of publication of my magnificent novel. I mean, it is too soon to promise anything. When it is finished I shall send it to you to read and we shall then decide what is to be done.” After he wrote to his friend A. N. Pleshcheev on June 26, 1888, he never mentioned it again: “I go on writing my novel slowly, but I am crossing out more than I write.” The manuscript of it was never found. (Magarshack. Chekhov: A Life. 122.)
11 Translated by Koteliansky and Tomlinson. The Life and Letters of Anton Tchekhov. 89. [To Korolenko, October 17, 1887.]
12 Tolstoy had read Walden in English and greatly admired Thoreau; he recommended its translated publication to Suvorin.
13 Pis’ma. 131. [To Georgy Chekhov, October 17, 1887.]
14 Ibid., 132–133. [To Leykin, October 19, 1887.]
15 Translated by Koteliansky and Tomlinson. The Life and Letters of Anton Tchekhov. 91–92. [To Alexander Chekhov, October 21, 1887.]
16 Letopis’. 342. [October 23, 1887.]
17 Pis’ma. Vol. 2. 137. [To Alexander Chekhov, October 24, 1887.]
18 Translated by Peter Constantine. 171–178.
19 Magarshack. Chekhov: A Life. 118.
20 Pis’ma. Vol. 2. 140. [This is the first of two October 29, 1887, letters to Alexander Chekhov.]
21 Ibid., 139–140. [To Ezhov, October 27, 1887.]
22 Letopis’. 345. [End of October.]
23 Pis’ma. Vol. 2. 426.
24 Ibid., 141. [To Alexander Chekhov, second of two letters on October 29, 1887.]
25 Translated by Constance Garnett.
26 Letopis’. 346. [November 3, 1887.]
27 Rayfield. Anton Chekhov: A Life (1997). 488.
28 Letopis’. 345. [End of October to November 19, 1887.]
29 Alexandra Glama-Mesherskaya, in Memories of Chekhov: Accounts of the Writer from His Family, Friends and Contemporaries. 112–113.
November 1887
1 Yuriy Sobolev. “Tchekhov’s Creative Method.” In Koteliansky, Reminiscences. 21.
2 Letopis’. 346. [November 2, 1887.]
3 Pis’ma. Vol. 2. 140. [To Alexander Chekhov, first of two letters of October 29, 1887.]
4 Ibid., 142–143. [To Leykin, November 4, 1887.]
5 Letopis’. 346. [November 4, 1887.]
6 Virginia Llewellyn Smith. Anton Chekhov and the Lady with the Dog. 92–93.
7 Translated by Constance Garnett.
8 Pis’ma. Vol. 2. 146. [To Aleksei Kiselev, November 10, 1887.]
9 Ibid., 150. [To the Society of Russian Playwrights and Opera Composers, November 16, 1887.]
10 Translated by Heim and Karlinsky. Anton Chekhov’s Life and Thought: Selected Letters and Commentary. 70–71. [To Leykin, November 15, 1887.]
11 Translated by Constance Garnett.
12 Letopis’. 351. [November 21, 1887.]
13 Translated by Heim and Karlinsky. Anton Chekhov’s Life and Thought: Selected Letters and Commentary. 73–75. [To Alexander Chekhov, November 24, 1887.]
14 Pis’ma. Vol. 2. 155–156. [To Lazarev, November 26, 1887.]
December 1887
1 Translated by Heim and Karlinsky. Anton Chekhov’s Life and Thought: Selected Letters and Commentary. 376. [To Leontyev (Shcheglov), February 2, 1900.]
2 Translated by Constance Garnett.
3 Translated by Constance Garnett.
4 Letopis’. 357. [December 9, 1887.]
5 Ibid., 357–358. [December 10 or 11, 1887.]
6 Translated by Constance Garnett.
7 Janet Malcolm observes: “What poor Ryabovich fails to communicate to his comrades in his amateur’s innocence Chekhov succeeds in communicating to us with his professional’s guile.” (Reading Chekhov: A Critical Journey. 44–45.)
8 Pis’ma. Vol. 2. 161. [To Barantsevich, December 15, 1887.]
9 Ibid. [To Shcheglov, between December 16 and 20, 1887.]
10 Translated by Constance Garnett.
11 Works. Vol. 6. 600–601.
12 An Internet edition of the story adds a note to Garnett’s translation suggesting that the boys are ten; the eldest sister is eleven, however, and their awe of and respect for the boys suggests more strongly to me that all the girls are younger and that the brother is the family’s firstborn, thus a prince, perhaps thirteen years old. In the original publication the oldest sister is twelve.
13 Translated by Heim and Karlinsky. Anton Chekhov’s Life and Thought: Selected Letters and Commentary. 372. [To Rossolimo, January 21, 1900.]
14 Works. Vol. 6. 601.
15 Translated by Constance Garnett.
16 Pis’ma. Vol. 2. 162.
17 Ibid., 438.
18 Ibid., 164.
Conclusion
1 Ivan Bunin in Reminiscences of Anton Chekhov by Maxim Gorky, Alexander Kuprin, and I. A. Bunin. 108.
2 A. A. Izmaylov. “Antosha Chekhonte.”
3 Ivan Bunin told this to Galina Kuznetzova on May 25, 1925. (About Chekhov: The Unfinished Symphony. xviii.)
4 Maxim Gorky. In Memories of Chekhov: Accounts of the Writer from His Family, Friends and Contemporaries. 79.
5 Translated by S. S. Koteliansky and Philip Tomlinson. The Life and Letters of Anton Tchekhov. 203–204. [To Vladimir Tikhonov, February 22, 1892.]
6 This title is difficult to track down. I went here: NYPL Research Libraries: 33433 10989 2541. ReCAP 13-25282.
Bibliography
Chekhov, A. P. Polnoe Sobranie Sochineniy i Pisem [Collected Works and Letters]. 30 volumes [Works in 18 volumes]. Moscow: Izdatel’stvo “Nauka,” 1976.
See also Chehov.Lit.Ru.
Stories and Plays
Listed by translator or editor
Birkett, G. A. and Gleb Struve. Anton Chekhov: Selected Short Stories. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959.