I have written a chapter titled “Burned Letters: Reconstructing the Chekhov-Levitan Friendship” for the newly published Chekhov’s Letters: Biography, Context, Poetics. The editors also asked me to contribute to a section in the book in which the anthology’s authors describe their favorite Chekhov letter. “A Prescription to Keep Love at Bay” is a short essay on a humorous and intentionally absurd letter Chekhov wrote to Lika Mizinova on 20 June 1891.

This book is the first in English or Russian to be devoted to a collection of articles on Chekhov’s letters. Angela Brintlinger of Ohio State University writes that the editors “Carol Apollonio and Radislav Lapushin have gathered the best Russian, British, and North American scholars and writers to offer fascinating historical background, textual analysis, and personal insight into the most intimate genre of writing—the epistolary—and the most approachable of Russian writers—Chekhov.”

The book is available from the publishers, Lexington Books, and from Amazon.