Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

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Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends with biographical sketchTO G. I. ROSSOLIMO.YALTA, October 11, 1899.… Autobiography? I have a disease—Auto-biographophobia. Toread any sort of details about myself, and still more to write themfor print, is a veritable torture to me. On a separate sheet I send afew facts, very bald, but I can do no more ….I, A. P. Chekhov, was born on the 17th of January, 1860, atTaganrog. I was educated first in the Greek School near the churchof Tsar Constantine; then in the Taganrog high school. In 1879 Ientered the Moscow University in the Faculty of Medicine. I had atthe time only a slight idea of the Faculties in general, and chose theFaculty of Medicine I don’t remember on what grounds, but didnot regret my choice afterwards. I began in my first year to publishstories in the weekly journals and newspapers, and these literarypursuits had, early in the eighties, acquired a permanent professionalcharacter. In 1888 I took the Pushkin prize. In 1890 I travelledto the Island of Sahalin, to write afterwards a book upon ourpenal colony and prisons there. Not counting reviews, feuilletons,paragraphs, and all that I have written from day to day for the newspapers,which it would be difficult now to seek out and collect, Ihave, during my twenty years of literary work, published more thanthree hundred signatures of print, of tales, and novels. I have alsowritten plays for the stage.I have no doubt that the study of medicine has had an importantinfluence on my literary work; it has considerably enlarged the sphereof my observation, has enriched me with knowledge the true valueof which for me as a writer can only be understood by one who ishimself a doctor. It has also had a guiding influence, and it is probablydue to my close association with medicine that I have succeededin avoiding many mistakes.Familiarity with the natural sciences and with scientific methodhas always kept me on my guard, and I have always tried where itwas possible to be consistent with the facts of science, and where itwas impossible I have preferred not to write at all. I may observe inpassing that the conditions of artistic creation do not always admit374
Anton Chekhovof complete harmony with the facts of science. It is impossible torepresent upon the stage a death from poisoning exactly as it takesplace in reality. But harmony with the facts of science must be felteven under those conditions—i.e., it must be clear to the reader orspectator that this is only due to the conditions of art, and that hehas to do with a writer who understands.I do not belong to the class of literary men who take up a scepticalattitude towards science; and to the class of those who rush intoeverything with only their own imagination to go upon, I shouldnot like to belong ….375
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