Anton Chekhov
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born on the 29th of January 1860 in Taganrag, a commercial port city on the Sea of Azov. He lived at Politseyskaya street, which later became known as Chekhova street. His father Pavel Yegorovich Chekhov ran a grocery store and directed the parish choir. The elder Chekhov was a devout Orthodox Christian who physically abused his children. Anton recalled that despotism and lying ruined their mother's youth. He remembered how his father threw tantrums over too much salt in soup. This environment left a deep mark on the young boy. Later in life, he criticized his brother Alexander for treating his own family with similar tyranny. The family faced financial collapse when Pavel declared bankruptcy in 1876. They fled to Moscow while Anton stayed behind to sell possessions. He boarded with a man named Selivanov to finish his education. Young Chekhov supported himself by tutoring, catching goldfinches, and selling sketches to newspapers.
Chekhov qualified as a physician in 1884 though he made little money from medical practice. He treated poor patients free of charge while writing daily short humorous sketches under pseudonyms like Antosha Chekhonte. By 1882 he wrote for Oskolki owned by Nikolai Leykin. His early tone remained harsher than his mature fiction would become. In 1884 and 1885 he began coughing blood but refused to admit his tuberculosis to friends or family. He confessed to Leykin that he feared being sounded by colleagues. Early in 1886 Novoye Vremya invited him to write for their paper. The editor Alexey Suvorin paid double Leykin's rate per line. Suvorin became a lifelong friend despite their political differences. Dmitry Grigorovich advised the twenty-six-year-old writer to slow down and focus on quality. This advice struck Chekhov like a thunderbolt. He admitted writing mechanically without caring about readers. Yet manuscripts reveal he revised with extreme care. At Dusk won the Pushkin Prize in 1888 thanks to Grigorovich's influence.
In 1890 Chekhov undertook an arduous journey across Siberia to Sakhalin Island north of Japan. He traveled by train horse-drawn carriage and river steamer over three months. There he interviewed thousands of convicts and settlers for a census. The experience shocked and angered him as he witnessed floggings embezzlement and forced prostitution. He wrote that he saw the extreme limits of man's degradation. Children living in the penal colony moved him deeply. He concluded charity was not enough but government had duty to finance humane treatment. His findings published in 1893 and 1894 as The Island of Sakhalin became social science rather than literature. Letters written during the two-and-a-half-month journey remain among his best. One section of his long short story The Murder sets its final scene on Sakhalin where Yakov loads coal longing for home. Haruki Murakami later analyzed Chekhov's writing traditions from this period in his novel 1Q84. Seamus Heaney composed a poem titled Chekhov on Sakhalin about these events.
The first night of The Seagull at the Alexandrinsky Theatre occurred on the 17th of October 1896. The audience booed the play stinging Chekhov into renouncing theatre. Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko convinced Konstantin Stanislavski to direct a new production for Moscow Art Theatre in 1898. This revival restored Chekhov's interest in playwriting through psychological realism and ensemble playing. The Art Theatre subsequently produced Uncle Vanya which Chekhov completed in 1896. They premiered Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard in later years. These four works challenged acting ensembles by offering a theatre of mood instead of conventional action. Submerged life within the text created haunting atmospheres for audiences. Chekhov wrote The Seagull in a lodge he built in an orchard at Melikhovo. He planted trees there looking after them as though they were children. He dreamed of what they would be like three or four hundred years hence. In the last decades of his life he became an atheist while continuing to write plays with greater difficulty than before.
In March 1897 Chekhov suffered major haemorrhage of lungs during a visit to Moscow. Doctors diagnosed tuberculosis on upper part of lungs and ordered lifestyle changes. After father died in 1898 Chekhov bought land on outskirts of Yalta building The White Dacha villa. He moved mother and sister into it the following year. Though he planted flowers kept dogs and tame cranes he always relieved to leave hot Siberia for Moscow. He vowed moving to Taganrag once water supply installed there. On the 25th of May 1901 Chekhov married Olga Knipper quietly due to horror of weddings. She was former protégée and lover of Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko whom he met at rehearsals for The Seagull. He lived largely at Yalta while she stayed in Moscow pursuing acting career. In 1902 Olga suffered miscarriage creating tension between couple. Their long-distance marriage produced correspondence preserving gems of theatre history including shared complaints about Stanislavski's directing methods. In Yalta he wrote The Lady with the Dog depicting casual liaison turning into deep love between two unhappy married people.
By May 1904 Chekhov terminally ill with tuberculosis same disease killing his brother Nikolai. On the 3rd of June he set off with Olga for German spa town Badenweiler in Black Forest. He wrote outwardly jovial letters describing food and surroundings assuring family getting better. His last letter complained about way German women dressed. Chekhov died on the 15th of July 1904 at age 44 after long fight with illness. Body transported to Moscow in refrigerated railway-car meant for oysters offending Gorky. Thousands followed funeral procession of General Keller by mistake accompanied by military band. Buried next to father at Novodevichy Cemetery. A few months before death told Ivan Bunin people might read writings seven years. Posthumous reputation greatly exceeded expectations placing him second only to Tolstoy in literary celebrity. Constance Garnett translations won English readership admiration from James Joyce Virginia Woolf Katherine Mansfield. Vladimir Lenin believed reading Ward No. 6 made him revolutionary. William Boyd asserts short stories represent greater achievement than plays despite global acclaim as playwright.
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Common questions
When and where was Anton Chekhov born?
Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born on the 29th of January 1860 in Taganrog, a commercial port city on the Sea of Azov. He lived at Politseyskaya street which later became known as Chekhova street.
What medical condition did Anton Chekhov suffer from during his life?
Doctors diagnosed tuberculosis affecting the upper part of lungs after he suffered major haemorrhage of lungs in March 1897. This same disease killed his brother Nikolai and caused his death on the 15th of July 1904 at age 44.
Why did Anton Chekhov travel to Sakhalin Island in 1890?
Anton Chekhov undertook an arduous journey across Siberia to Sakhalin Island north of Japan over three months to interview thousands of convicts and settlers for a census. The experience shocked him as he witnessed floggings embezzlement and forced prostitution.
How many plays did the Moscow Art Theatre produce by Anton Chekhov?
The Moscow Art Theatre produced four works including The Seagull Uncle Vanya Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard. These four works challenged acting ensembles by offering a theatre of mood instead of conventional action.
Who was married to Anton Chekhov and when did they wed?
On the 25th of May 1901 Chekhov married Olga Knipper quietly due to horror of weddings. She was former protégée and lover of Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko whom he met at rehearsals for The Seagull.