As to my medical practice, while still a student I worked in the Voskresensk Community Hospital (near New Jerusalem) with P. A. Archangelski, the eminent physician; later I spent a short period as doctor at the Zvenigorod Hospital. During the cholera years ('92, '93) I directed the medical work in Melik- hovo Section of Serpukhov District.
To OLGA KNIPPER
October 30, /8gg, Yalta
Sweet actress and good little fellow,
You ask whether I am excited. As a matter of fact it was only from your letter, received on the twenty-seventh, that I learned "Uncle Vanya" was being performed on the twenty-sixth. The telegrams started arriving the evening of the twenty-seventh, after I had already gone to bed. They were repeated to me over the telephone. I kept on waking each time and running bare- foot to the telephone in the dark, giving myself a bad chill; I would hardly fall asleep before there would be another ring, and another. This is the first occasion my own personal glory has prevented my sleeping. Upon going to bed the next night I put my bedroom slippers and bathrobe next to the bed, but there were no more telegrams.
The telegrams contained nothing but words about the num- ber of curtain calls and the brilliant success achieved, but I could sense something strained, something very elusive, about all of them, which led me to conclude that you were not all in such very good spirits. The newspapers received here today have confirmed this conjecture of mine. Yes, my dear actress, you Art Theatre performers are not satisfied any more with just ordinary, average success. You must have fireworks, cannonad- ing and dynamite. You are utterly spoiled, deafened with these continual discourses on success, on full and empty houses; you are already infected with this dizzy whirl and in a couple of years you won't be fit for anything! So much for you people!
How are you getting along and how do you feel? I am still in the same place and everything remains the same: my program consists of literary work and setting out trees. . . .
Don't forget me and don't let our friendship fade, so that the two of us can take another trip somewhere next summer. So long! We shall probably not see each other before April. If you came to Yalta this spring, you could give some performances here and relax. That would be wonderfully artistic. . . .
I clasp your hand cordially. My respect to Anna Ivanovna^ and your military uncle.
Yours,
A. Chekhov
1 Anna Iv.anovna was Olga Knipper's mother; She was a teacher of singing at a conservatory.
My dear actress, do write, in the name of all that is holy, or I shall be lonesome. It's as if I were in jail and my spirits are very low.
To OLGA KNIPPER Ar , 0 v „
November i, 1899, Yalta
I understand your mood, sweet little actress, understand it perfectly, but still in your place I wouldn't be in such a desper- ate dither. Neither the role of Annai nor the play itself is en- titled to impair your emotions and nerves to such an extent. The play is old and already outdated and has all sorts of defects; if more than half the performers just couldn't get into the swing of the thing the play is naturally to blame. That's the first point. Secondly, you've got to cut out worrying about suc- cesses and failures once and for all. They are not your affair. Your job is to jog along, day in, day out, like a quiet little creature, prepared for the mistakes that can't be avoided and for failures; in short, to do a job as an actress and let the others count the curtain calls. It is usual to write, or to act, and know all long that you are not doing the right thing—and for be- ginners this awareness is so usefull
In the third place, your director telegraphed that the second performance [of Uncle Vanya] came off magnificently, every- body played wonderfully and he was completely satisfied.
Masha writes that Moscow is unpleasant and I oughtn't to go there, but I would like so much to leave Yalta, where my lonely life has wearied me. I am a Johannes2 without a wife, not a learned Johannes and not a virtuous one. . . .
Keep well! Write that you have already calmed down and that everything is going beautifully. I press your hand.
Your
A. Chekhov
"Anna" must be a mistake. Chekhov was, of course, writing about Elena in Uncle Vanya. Knipper was also playing the part of Anna in Hauptmann s play Lonely Lives that season,
Johannes is a character in Lonely Lives.
To VLADIMIR NEMIROVICH-DANCHENKO [1899]
To MARIA MALKIEL
November 5, 1899, Yalta
Dear klaria Samoilovna,
I hereby inform you that I have been converted to the Mohammedan faith and have already been entered as a mem- ber of the Tatar Society of Autka Village near Yalta. Our laws do not permit us to enter into correspondence with such weak creatures as women and if, in complying with the inclination of my heart, I write to you, I am committing a grievous sin. I thank you for the letter and send hearty regards to you and your prophetic sister, and I hope you both get into the harem of an eminent gentleman, one who is as handsome as Levitan. Write some more. Keep well and happy.
Osman Chekhov
To VLADIMIR NEMIROVICH-DANCHENKO
December j, 1899, Yalta
My dear Vladimir Ivanovich,
An answer has come from Karpov.1 He agrees to postpone the production of "Uncle Vanya" until next year (or more exactly next season). Now it remains for you to act on a "legal" basis, as good lawyers say. The play belongs to you, you can go on with it and I will pretend I am powerless to do anything about it, since I have already given it to you.
Are you afraid of Suvorin? We no longer correspond and I don't know what is going on there now. But I can tell you be- forehand that very probably St. Petersburg won't like the Art Theatre. St. Petersburg literary men and actors are extremely jealous and envious, and superficial at that. . . .
I have read the criticisms of "Uncle Vanya" only in the "Courier" and "News of the Day." . . .
1 Evtikhi Pavlovich Karpov (1859-1926), playwTight, fiction writer and pro- ducer at various St. Petersburg theatres.
So you want definitely to have a play for next season. But suppose it doesn't get written? I will try, of course, but won't vouch for it and cannot promise a thing. However, we'll dis- cuss it after Eastertirne when, if I can believe Vishnevski and the newspapers, your troupe will be in Yalta. Then we'll really talk things over. . . .
Yes, you are right, Alexeyev-Trigorin2 has to be done over for the St. Petersburg public, even if only slightly. Sprinkle a bit of thyroid extract over him, or something. Alexeyev, who plays Trigorin as a hopeless impotent, will puzzle them all in that town, the horne of most of our men of letters. I find the recollection of Alexeyev's acting too dismal to shake off and cannot possibly believe he is good in "Uncle Vanya" although everybody writes that he is really very good, very, very good.