This revelatory documentary biography of Anton Chekhov (1860–1904), one of the world’s best playwrights, collects more than 100 written recollections of Chekhov’s close friends, family and colleague writers and artists, such as Ivan Bunin, Konstantin Stanislavsky and Maxim Gorky. Drawn from rare periodicals and obscure archival sources from the 1880s to the 1930s, these accounts, few of which have ever before been translated to English, address his affairs with female admirers, his passions and hobbies, his visits to shelters for the homeless, his support of aspiring writers, as well as his advice to theater directors, actors and writers. A complement to the wealth of scholarly material on Chekhov, this work offers new discoveries for both specialists and general enthusiasts.

Peter Sekirin received his Ph.D. in Russian literature at the University of Toronto in 1999. He has been working as Research Associate at the Center for Russian Studies at the University of Toronto for eight years. He has translated three of Tolstoy’s works, A Calendar of Wisdom, Divine and Human and Wise Thoughts For Every Day as well as two collections of short stories by Anton Chekhov and the biography Memories of Chekhov. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Edited and translated by Peter Sekirin
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 223
Bibliographic Info: 12 photos, chronology, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2012
pISBN: 978-0-7864-5871-4
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8644-1
Imprint: McFarland

Foreword by Alan Twigg      1

Preface      7

One. Childhood and School Years: 1860–1879

Introduction      11

Mikhail Chekhov. “Around Chekhov”      12

Mikhail Chekhov. “Anton Chekhov During His Summer Vacations”      13

Ivan Chekhov and Leonid Sulerzhitsky. “Memories of Chekhov”      14

Maria Drossi and Alexander Roskin. “Chekhov’s Young Years”      15

Alexander Chekhov. “From Chekhov’s Childhood”      15

Alexey Dolzhenko. “Memories of Anton Chekhov”      17

Maria Chekhova. “My Memories”      18

Sergei Yakovlev. “Memories of A.P. Chekhov”      20

Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. “From the Past”      23

Two. Chekhov in Moscow: 1879–1892

Introduction      25

Zakhar Pichugin. “From My Meetings with A.P. Chekhov”      27

Konstantin Korovin. “My Meetings with Chekhov”      28

Grigory Rossolimo. “Memories of Chekhov”      30

Ivan Leontiev-Shcheglov. “Chekhov”      32

Peter Zelenin. “About A.P. Chekhov and His Family”      34

Nikolai Teleshov. “A.P. Chekhov”      36

Vladimir Korolenko. “Anton Pavlovich Chekhov”      39

Sergei Sobolevsky. “A Portrait”      40

Aleksander Lazarev-Gruzinsky. “A.P. Chekhov”      41

Semyon Podiachev. “My Life”      44

Natalia Gubareva. “Memories of A.P. Chekhov”      46

Aleksander Pomerantsev. “Memories of A.P. Chekhov”      47

Ilya Repin. “My Meetings with Chekhov”      49

Three. The Melikhovo Cottage in the 1890s

Introduction      51

Tatiana Shchepkina-Kupernik. “Young Years”      52

Jury Avdeev. “Chekhov in Melikhovo”      53

Mikhail Chekhov. “Around Chekhov”      54

Alexey Yakovlev. “A.P. Chekhov”      55

Ivan Belousov. “Chekhov as a Fisherman”      58

Ilya Braz. “New About Chekhov”      59

A. Kazanin, E. Vakulov. “Encounters with Chekhov”      60

Grigory Rossolimo. “Memories of Chekhov”      60

Nina Drozdova. “Memories of Chekhov”      62

Mikhail Plotov. “A Big Heart”      64

Tatiana Shchepkina-Kupernik. “Young Years”      66

Pavel Egorovich Chekhov. “Diary”      69

Jury Avdeev. “To the Memory of Maria Chekhova”      70

Alexander Roskin. “Young Chekhov”      71

Alexey Suvorin and Anton Chekhov. “Works. Letters”      72

Mikhail Chekhov. “Around Chekhov”      73

A. Chaikin. “Anton Chekhov: My Traveling Companion”      74

Anatoly Koni. “Selected Works”      75

Mikhail Chekhov. “A.P. Chekhov and Mongooses”      76

Alexandra Khotiaintseva. “Meetings with Chekhov”      76

Four. Writers and Friends

Introduction      78

Maxim Gorky. “A.P. Chekhov”      79

A. Melkova. “Tatyana Tolstaya and Chekhov”      80

Maxim Gorky. “Leo Tolstoy”      81

Ivan Bunin. “Chekhov”      81

Sergei Semenov. “Chekhov Meets Leo Tolstoy”      82

Anton Chekhov. “Letters”      84

Vassily Maklakov. “Memories of Chekhov”      85

Alexander Sumbatov-Juzhin. “Three Meetings”      86

Ivan Belousov. “About A.P. Chekhov”      87

Fyodor Fidler. “Mister Golikov”      87

Evgeny Karpov. “Two Last Meetings with Chekhov”      88

Evgeny Yasinsky. “The Novel of My Life”      90

Vladimir Giliarovsky. “Optimistic People”      90

Ignaty Potapenko. “Interview”      91

Ivan Novikov. “Two Meetings with Chekhov”      93

Alexander Serebrov-Tikhonov. “About Chekhov”      94

Alexander Goldenweiser. “Around Tolstoy”      95

Leo Tolstoy. “Diary” (from Complete Works)      96

Vladimir Simov. “From Memories of Chekhov”      97

Mikhail Nesterov. “The Old Days”      98

Leonid Sulerzhitsky and Vasily Kachalov. “Interview”      98

Mikhail Chlenov. “A.P. Chekhov and Culture”      99

Nikolai Panov. “About Chekhov’s Portrait”      100

Alexander Pleshcheev. “Visiting A.P. Chekhov”      101

Alexey Suvorin. “Diary”      104

Lydia Avilova. “A.P. Chekhov in My Life”      104

Five. Chekhov and Theater

Introduction      108

Konstantin Stanislavsky. “Works. My Life in Art”      110

Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko. “From the Past”      111

Alexandra Glama-Mesherskaya. “Memories”      112

Vsevolod Meyerhold. “Diary”      113

Alexander Pleshcheev. “The Staging of Ivanov”      113

Fyodor Chervinsky. “Meetings with A.P. Chekhov”      115

Nikolai Ezhov. “Humor Writers of the 1880s”      115

Konstantin Varlamov. “Meetings with Varlamov”      116

Vladimir Giliarovsky. “Moscow and Moscovites”      116

Vladimir Korolenko. “Anton Pavlovich Chekhov”      117

Maria Chitau. “A.P. Chekhov”      119

Olga Knipper-Chekhova. “About A.P. Chekhov”      120

Vera Komissarzhevskaya. “Memories”      121

Konstantin Stanislavsky. “Works. The Moscow Art Theater”      123

Vassily Kachalov. “From My Memories”      124

Nikolai Teleshov. “A.P. Chekhov”      128

Ivan Volkov. “Meyerhold: A Biography”      129

Vladimir Nemorovich-Danchenko. “From the Past. The Birth of a Theater”      130

Konstantin Stanislavsky. “The Moscow Art Theater in Yalta”      132

Konstantin Stanislavsky. “A Trip to Crimea”      134

Kleopatra Katarygina. “Memories of A.P. Chekhov”      137

Konstantin Stanislavsky. “Chekhov and Artyom”      139

Nikolai Efros. “From the History of The Cherry Orchard”      140

Savva Mamontov. “Two Meetings with Chekhov”      141

Sergei Naidenov-Alexeev. “Chekhov in My Memories”      142

Leonid Leonidov. “Past and Present”      143

Viktor Troinov. “Meetings in Moscow”      144

Six. Chekhov in Yalta: 1898–1904

Introduction      146

Elena Shavrova. “A.P. Chekhov”      148

Daniil Gorodetsky. “Memories of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov”      149

I. Gurland. “Memories of Chekhov”      151

A.A. Kuprina-Iordanskaya. “From the Memories of Kuprin”      151

Mikhail Pervukhin. “A.P. Chekhov and Yalta Residents”      152

Lev Shapovalov. “Chekhov’s House in Yalta”      152

Maria Chekhova. “Chekhov Museum in Yalta”      153

Vladimir Ladyzhensky. “Old Days”      156

Viacheslav Fausek. “My Meeting with Chekhov”      157

Vladimir Posse. “My Life”      160

Ivan Bunin. “Chekhov”      162

Alexander Kuprin. “Chekhov. In Memoriam”      164

Ekaterina Peshkova. “Meetings with A.P. Chekhov”      166

Maxim Gorky. “A.P. Chekhov”      168

Alexey Pleshcheev. “Chekhov in Yalta”      169

Lev Altshuller. “Memories of Doctor Altshuller’s Son about Chekhov”      170

Isaac Altshuller. “About Chekhov”      170

Alexey Sergeenko. “Two Meetings with Chekhov”      172

Isaac Altshuller. “About Chekhov”      174

Sergei Elpatievsky. “Anton Pavlovich Chekhov”      176

Nikolai Garin-Mikhailovsky. “In Memory of Chekhov”      177

Vikenti Veresaev. “A.P. Chekhov”      178

Vladimir Knipper-Nardov. “Memories of A.P. Chekhov”      179

Mikhail Pervukhin. “From My Memories of Chekhov”      179

Natalia Gubareva. “Memories of A.P. Chekhov”      182

Boris Lazarevsky. “A.P. Chekhov”      183

Maxim Gorky. “A.P. Chekhov”      184

Anton Chekhov and Olga Knipper. “Letters”      187

Olga Knipper-Chekhova. “About A.P. Chekhov”      189

Nikolai Ulianov. “The Portrait of Chekhov”      191

Appendix: The Lifetime of Anton Chekhov      193

Annotated Bibliography      205

Index      211