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ANTON TCHEKHOV a RESUME of HIS WORKS and of HIS CAREER by B

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ANTON TCHEKHOV a RESUME of HIS WORKS and of HIS CAREER by B ANTON TCHEKHOV A RESUME OF HIS WORKS AND OF HIS CAREER By B. BARKER BEESON, M.D. CHICAGO, ILL. ANTON PAVELOVITCH laborers, artisans and sailors. An / TCHEKHOV was born at ignorant and brutal Greek acted as Taganrog, a port on the Sea the schoolmaster. He used the whip **"■ of Azov, Southern Russia, freely. In the lower grades Anton January 17, i860. He was one of six was a dull, lazy scholar and the butt children. His parents were of peasant of many practical jokes. With the stock, the paternal grandfather hav- advent of manhood and his entrance ing been a serf who by the most rigid into the College of Taganrog a radical economy had saved enough to pur- change took place in him. He became chase the freedom of his family and a clever student and kept his fellows himself in 1841 or almost twenty roaring with laughter at his jokes years before the general liberation and witty retorts. Tchekhov aided in of the serfs by Alexander 11. This editing a school paper called the cost him about 3500 roubles then Little Star and also worked on a equal to about $1750.00. Tchekhov’s humorous journal. About that same father while employed in a Taganrog time he wrote a farce “The Little commercial house had saved up a Chickens Do Not Sing In Vain” modest sum with which he opened a and also a piece called “The Orphan.” store devoted to the sale of colonial After the departure of his family for products. Adverse conditions resulted Moscow he was forced to take up in the failure of this enterprise in tutoring which continued until 1879 1876. After selling everything to sat- when having passed the entrance isfy his creditors the father and the examinations he matriculated in the rest of the family moved to Moscow Faculty of Medicine of the University leaving Anton alone in his native of Moscow. Tchekhov wrote after- city. His infancy must have been a wards that no special reason urged sombre affair since he was only al- his choice of medicine as a profession lowed out in order to attend the but that he never regretted his action. nearby Greek Catholic Church. In While a medical student it was in- later years he referred to that time of cumbent on him to aid in the family his life as follows, “When I recall my support so we find Tchekhov busily infancy it seems to have been hideous. engaged in writing upon anything I have no religion now. When my two which would be pleasing to the public brothers and I sang in the church, and at the same time pass the eagle- the crowd gazed upon us with admira- eyed censor. Henri Duclos who has tion and envied our parents but we felt dedicated his excellent thesis1 to an ourselves to be veritable prisoners.” exhaustive study of the life and Tchekhov attended a public school works of Tchekhov, states that his in the outskirts of Taganrog. The first Moscow contribution appeared pupils were chiefly the children of in a humorous journal The Little Book. It was called “A Letter To tributed much towards his early My Friend The Savant.” For two death. Duclos quotes from a letter years more he kept on writing most written to Tchekhov by his editor diligently before he received recogni- in which he offers to present Tchekhov tion. His contributions were signed with theater tickets or suggests that A. Tchekhonte, the name given to it would be better if the writer went him by the professor of religious to the editor’s tailor and ordered a instruction at Taganrog. During this pair of trousers to be charged to his time Tchekhov inhabited a dingy account. basement room in the Drachova quar- In 1884 Tchekhov received his ter of Moscow. N. Lakin is said to medical degree from the Moscow have been the first editor to recognize University. He spent that summer his real worth. He asked Tchekhov with a brother who taught school to contribute to a comic journal of at Voskressensk. Later several months rather good standing. During those were passed at the Zemstvo or Dis- times his life was a tragedy, the trict Hospital of Zvenigorod, not far combined incomes of his father and away. \\ hile there Tchekhov besides himself barely sufficing for the family his duties as a rural practitioner also support. Tchekhov, both mentally cared for the indigent and acted as a and physically, never recovered from sanitary expert. About that same those days of misery and they con- time the Gazette of Petersburg asked for his collaboration. In 1886 D. V. Steppe,” one of Tchekhov’s longer Grigorivitch, one of Russia’s literary novels, was published by a celebrated celebrities, wrote to Tchekhov as review, the Severny Vestnik. Two of his other works, “The Dawn” and “Obscure Beings” appeared about follows, “You have a real talent, a that same time. Even in the midst talent which places you well above of these successes Tchekhov was still the group of writers of the new poor and thus compelled to work generation.” Soon afterward Alexis like a slave in order to aid his family. Souvorine, the owner and director He became exhausted from overwork of the Novoie Vremia, one of the best and insufficient nourishment and one known Russian publications, also day he had a pulmonary hemorrhage. asked for Tchekhov’s collaboration. No one knew better than he the A little later he was given a hearty significance of such a sign but he welcome at Petersburg by the literary labored on and did not alarm his celebrities. In 1889 Tchekhov re- family. ceived the Pouchkine Prize from the In 1890 Tchekhov left for the Russian Academy of Sciences. This Island of Saghalien, then a celebrated was considered a signal honor. prison, off the Asiatic coast. He “Ivanov,” a drama of his was pre- arrived after a three months’ trip sented at both Petersburg and Mos- across Siberia which had no trans- cow and was a striking success. “The continental railroad at that time. He returned by the ocean route. He wrote prine, spent much time with him. about Saghalien in a book entitled In January 1900 Tchekhov was “The Island of Saghalien,” which elected an honorary member of the produced a profound impression upon Academy of Sciences but he resigned both the government and the general along with Korolenko two years later public. This work also earned for as a protest against Gorki’s rejection. Tchekhov the Archbishop Makary In the summer of 1900 the troupe Prize. Soon after his return he left of the Artistic Theatre of Moscow Moscow and went to live in a rural came to Yalta and presented two of community in the Province of Meli- Tchekhov’s plays, “Uncle Vania” khovo. There he secured a home and “The Sea Gull.” Late that same and remained with his family until year he completed “The Three Sis- 1898. While there Tchekhov was ters” which was produced by the quite active in the private practice Moscovite Artistic Theatre early in of medicine as well as in the Zemstvo 1901. A few weeks later Tchekhov of Serpukhov. He was also very busy was married to Olga Leodarnovna from the literary point of view having Knipper, an actress of the Artistic produced a number of works during Theatre whom he had known for that period. Among them may be about one year. Their brief honey- mentioned: “Room Six,” “The His- moon was spent in the Caucasus. tory of an Unknown,” “The Kingdom Tchekhov’s condition soon compelled of Women,” “The House With a them to return to Yalta. Not wishing Mezzanine,” “the Black Monk” and to hinder his wife’s career he sent “My Life.” He also collected material her back to Moscow. By this time for “A Murder” as well as for “The his weakened state prevented Tchek- Peasants.” hov from doing much writing but he In 1898 Tchekhov returned to finished the “Cherry Orchard” which France which he had visited for some have considered his most touch- the first time in 1891 and spent some ing work. He passed most of the winter time along the Cote d’Azur. He soon of 1903-1904 at Moscow awaiting the went back to Russia and settled down initial performance of the “Cherry at Yalta, the fasionable Crimean Orchard” which occurred on January resort. There he built a home. It 17,1904, the forty-fourth anniversary was at Yalta that most of the short of his birth. It was a big success but time left for him to live, was spent. the reaction affected him unfavorably By this time his tuberculosis was well and early in the summer he was sent advanced and he had entirely aban- to Badenweiler, in the Black Forest of doned the practice of medicine. Marx, Germany. He became steadily worse the well known Petersburg publisher, but cheered up his family and friends had purchased all of Tchekhov’s works to the last. July 2, 1904, saw the end so he was no longer worried about of Tchekhov’s remarkable career. finances. Because of his illness he He died alone in a foreign land. His was most indulgent with the poor remains were transported to Moscow consumptives who came to Yalta in in a car usually employed for hauling search of a cure. The foremost writers oysters. So we see that ridicule which among his countrymen, among them he always dreaded during life was not Tolstoi, Gorki, Bounine and Kou- spared him in death.
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