CHEKHOV, Anton (1860-1904). Autograph letter signed ('A. Chekhov') to Anna Mikhailovna Evreinova, n.p., 8 February [1889], asking for the proofs of Ivanov to be sent 'as quickly as possible, and not less than in triplicate ... In the coming Lent a great dramatist will become a humble story writer and will begin writing a novelette for the Sev. Vestnik ... I shall write to you again about Ivanov. I will try to prevent the play from boring any one except myself', 2½ pages, 8vo, on a bifolium, three lines in another hand to last page.

CHEKHOV, Anton (1860-1904). Autograph letter signed ('A. Chekhov') to Anna Mikhailovna Evreinova, n.p., 8 February [1889], asking for the proofs of Ivanov to be sent 'as quickly as possible, and not less than in triplicate ... In the coming Lent a great dramatist will become a humble story writer and will begin writing a novelette for the Sev. Vestnik ... I shall write to you again about Ivanov. I will try to prevent the play from boring any one except myself', 2½ pages, 8vo, on a bifolium, three lines in another hand to last page.

Ivanov was the first of Chekhov's plays to be printed, in Severnyi Vestnik the following month. The letter was published in Golos Minuvshago, Paris, 1926, and again in Literaturnoe Nasledstvo, Moscow, 1960.