Letters of Anton Chekhov (Tchekhov) - Penn State University

Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends with biographical sketchTO S. P. DYAGILEV.YALTA, July 12, 1903.… I have been thinking over your letter for a long time, and alluringas your suggestion or offer is, yet in the end I must answer it asneither you nor I would wish.I cannot be the editor of The World of Art, as I cannot live inPetersburg, … that’s the first point. And the second is that just as apicture must be painted by one artist and a speech delivered by oneorator, so a magazine must be edited by one man. Of course I amnot a critic, and I dare say I shouldn’t make a very good job of thereviews; but on the other hand, how could I get on in the same boatwith Merezhkovsky, who definitely believes, didactically believes,while I lost my faith years ago and can only look with perplexity atany “intellectual” who does believe? I respect Merezhkovsky, andthink highly of him both as a man and as a writer, but we should bepulling in opposite directions ….Don’t be cross with me, dear Sergey Pavlovitch: it seems to methat if you go on editing the magazine for another five years youwill come to agree with me. A magazine, like a picture or a poem,must bear the stamp of one personality and one will must be felt init. This has been hitherto the case in the World of Art, and it was agood thing. And it must be kept up ….416