What you disclose in confidence about Konstantin Sergey- evich and my wife made me extraordinarily happy. Thank you, now I can take measures and will now proceed on the matter of a divorce.i I'm sending a statement to the Consistory today, to which I will attach your letter, and believe I will be free by spring; but before May I will give it to that spouse of mine properly. She fears me and I certainly don't handle her with kid gloves—she gets it wherever my foot lands!
1 Lilina had jokingly written that her husband was paying attention to Knipper.
Greetings and hearty regards to Konstantin Sergeyevich. My congratulations to you both on the new theatre—I believe in its future success.
My profound compliments to you, I kiss your hand and greet you once more.
Your sincerely devoted
A. Chekhov
To OLGA KNIPPER
February ij, igo2, Yalta
Sweetie, pussy cat,
I will not meet you at the pier, as it will probably be chilly. Don't worry. I will meet you in my study, we will have supper together and then a good long talk.
Yesterday I suddenly and unexpectedly had a letter from Suvorin. This was after a silence of three years. He runs down your theatre but praises you, as it would be embarrassing to abuse you. . . .
It doesn't take three, but five days for letters to reach Yalta. This one, which I am mailing on the thirteenth of February, you will receive the seventeenth or eighteenth. So you seel Con- sequently I will write you one little bit of a letter tomorrow and then—enough! Then, after, a brief interval, I will enter upon my marital responsibilities.
When you arrive, please don't mention a word to me about eating. It is a bore, especially in Yalta. After Masha's departure everything changed again and goes along in the old way, as it did before her arrival, and it could not have been otherwise.
I am reading Turgenev. One eighth or one tenth of what he has written will survive, all the rest will be a mere matter of historical record twenty-five or thirty-five years from now. You don't mean to say you once liked Chichagov, the "Alarm Clock" artist? Heavens!
Why, oh why, does Savva Morozovi have aristocratic guests? Certainly they will cram themselves full of his food and laugh at his expense when they leave, as if he were a Yakut. I would drive those beasts out with a big stick. I have some perfume, but not much, and hardly any Eau de Cologne.
I kiss my sweetheart, my wonderful, beloved wife, and await her arrival impatiently. It is overcast today, not warm, drab, and if it weren't for thoughts of you and your visit, I think I might start drinking.
Now then, let me embrace my little German lady.
Your Ant.
To VLADIMIR KOROLENKO
April 19, 1902, Yalta
Dear F/adimir Galaktionovich,
My wife arrived from St. Petersburg with a 102.2 tempera- ture, quite weak and in considerable pain; she cannot walk, and had to be carried off the boat. . . . Now I think she is somewhat better.
I am not going to give Tolstoy the protest. When I began talking to him about Gorki and the Academy,ia he mumbled something about not considering himself an academician and buried his head in his book. I gave Gorki one copy and read him your letter. For some reason or other I don't think the Academy will hold a meeting on the twenty-fifth of May, as all the academicians will already have left town by the beginning of the month. I also think they won't vote for Gorki a second time and that he'll be blackballed. I want awfully to see you and talk things over. Can't you come to Yalta? I'll be here until the fifteenth of May. I would go to your place in Poltava, but my wife is sick, and will probably be bedridden here for an-
1 Savva Morozov was a wealthy merchant, a liberal and cultured man and an early backer of Ihe Moscow Art Theatre.
la Gorki had been elecled lo Ihe Academy, but the Czar disapproved, and had the election declared null and void. Chekhov and Korolenko wrote a declaration of principles and both resigned from the Academy.
other three weeks. Or shall we see each other after the fifteenth of May in Moscow, on the Volga, or abroad? Write.
I give you a cordial handclasp and send my very best wishes. Keep well.
Yours,
A. Chekhov
My wife sends her greetings.
To MARIA CHEKHOVA
June 2, i9o2, M0sc0w
Dear Masha,
We are again in a predicament. The night before Trinity, at 10 o'clock, Olga felt sharp pains in her abdomen (more painful than those she had in Yalta), then followed groans, shrieks, sobbing; the doctors had all gone to their summer homes (the night before a holiday), all our friends had also departed. . . . Thank goodness, Vishnevski appeared at midnight and began dashing around for a doctor. Olga was in torments all night, and this morning the doctor came; it has been decided to put her in Strauch's hospital. Overnight she became hollow-cheeked and thin. . . .
It is now uncertain what I will be doing, when I shall arrive and when I shall be leaving Moscow. Everything has been turned upside down.
Anna Ivanovna1 has an expression on her face as though she were to blame for some reason. She was on the hunt for doctors all night.
shall write later. In the meantime, keep well. Compliments
to Mama. ,, » •
Your Antoine
Olga's illness is the kind that will probably continue for a couple of years.2
^ Anna lvanovna was Olga Knipper's mother.
Olga Chekhova had a miscarriage. Chekhov's postscript, "Olga's illness is the kind that will probably continue for a couple of years," tells us nothing.
T0 KONSTANTIN STAN ISLAVSKI
July 18,1902, Lubim0vkat
Dear K0nstantin Sergeyevich,
Dr. Strauch came here today and found everything in order. He forbade Olga one thing only—driving over bad highways and excessive movement in general, but to my great satisfaction he has permitted her to take part in rehearsals without reserva- tion; she can start her theatre work even as early as the tenth of August. She has been forbidden to travel to Yalta. I am going there alone in August, will return the middle of September and then will remain in Moscow until December.
I like it very much in Lubimovka. April and May were bad months but luck is with me now, as if to make up for all I had gone through; there is so much quiet, health, warmth and pleas- ure that I just can't get over it. The weather is fine and the river is fine, and indoors we eat and sleep like bishops. I send you thousands of thanks, straight from the bottom of my heart. It is a long time since I have spent such a summer. I go fishing every day, five times a day, and the fishing is not bad (yesterday we had a perch chowder). Sitting on the riverbank is too agree- able a pastime to write about. To put it briefly, everything is very fine. Except for one thing: I am idling and haven't been doing any work. I haven't yet begun the play, am only thinking it over. I will probably not start work before the end of August.
. . . Be well and gay, gather up your strength and energy. I press your hand. Yours,
A. Chekhov
T0 MAXIM GORKI
July 29,1902, Lubim0vka
Dear A lexei Maxim0vich,
I have read your play,la which is new and good beyond any doubt. Act II is very good, the very best, the most powerful, and
l Chekhov borrowed the Stanislavski's summer cottage. I» The Lower Depths.