Anton Chekhoy
LETTERS ABOUT WRITERS AND WRITlNG*
To
IVAN LEONTIEV (SHCHEGLOV)l
May
3, 1888,
Moscow
Dear Alba,
. . . I sent a story to the
Northern Herald
and am slightly
ashamed of it. Very dull and dripping with fancy philosophy. I
hated to do it, but had to, for we run through money like water. To–
morrow I am finishing a story for
New Time.
All summer I'll be
writing only small
things.
I had a letter from Lehman: he informs that "we" (i.e., all
of you St. Petersburgers) "have agreed to carry announcements of
one another's works in our books," invites me to concur in this pro–
posal and warns that "only those persons more or less
in solidarity
with us" can be included in this elite. In reply I sent my consent
and inquired as to how he knew who was or was not in solidarity
with me. How smug all of you are in St. Pete! Don't tell me you
aren't all oppressed by such words as solidarity, the unity of young
writers, community of interest, and so on? Solidarity and such stuff
I understand on the stock exchange, in politics, in religious affairs
(of a sect), etc., but solidarity in young literary men is impossible
and unnecessary. We cannot think and feel the same way, our
aims
are various or nonexistent, we know one another slightly or not at
all, and so there isn't anything to which this solidarity might fasten
itself securely. Is there any need for it? No. To lend a helping hand
to one's colleague, to respect his personality and labors, not to gossip
about
him
or envy him, not to lie or play the hypocrite before him-
*
This group of letters is from
Selected Letters of Anton Chekhov,
edited by
Lillian Hellman and translated by Sidonie Lederer, which Farrar, Straus
&
Young will bring out next year.
t
Ivan Leontiev (1856-1911) was a playwright and novelist who used the
pen name of Shcheglov.
