Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)

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LINKS

Anton Chekhov Biography
http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/chekhovbio.html#Biography Part I

This page, created by a professor at Brandeis University, includes a detailed biography and an extensive bibliography of works by and about Chekhov.

Books and Writers: Anton Chekhov
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/tsehov.htm

This biography includes commentary on Chekhov’s major works, a bibliography, and suggestions for further reading. The Books and Writers Web site, a large database of biographical information on writers, is hosted by the Kuusankoski Public Library in Finland.

TheatreDatabase.com: Anton Chekhov
http://www.theatredatabase.com/19th_century/anton_chekhov_001.html

Here you will find a brief profile of Chekhov along with links to useful primary and secondary sources.

BIOGRAPHY

Born in 1860 in Taganrog, Russia, Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) wrote his first stories to help his family pay off debts while he was a medical student at Moscow University. His grandfather was a serf who had bought his freedom, and his father was an unsuccessful grocer.

Chekhov’s early stories were mostly humorous sketches that he first published in newspapers under various pseudonyms, keeping his own name for his medical articles. But the popularity of these sketches made him decide to become a writer. Chekhov's first two collections of short stories, published in 1886 and 1887, were acclaimed by readers, and from that time on he was able to devote all his time to writing. He then turned his pen to drama and wrote several acclaimed one-act plays dealing with everyday life and human emotion, including The Bear (1888) and The Wedding (1889).

Chekhov's first full-length plays, Ivanov (1887) and The Wood Demon (1888), did not receive much recognition. His first major breakthrough was the Moscow Art Theater production of The Seagull (1897). Though the play had been poorly received two years earlier in St. Petersburg, the Moscow Art Theater transformed it into a critical success. Chekhov and the Moscow Art Theatre went on to produce The Wood Demon (reworked and retitled as Uncle Vanya, 1899), The Three Sisters (1901), and The Cherry Orchard (1904) to critical acclaim, proving Chekhov a major playwright for modern theater.

In 1904, Chekhov died of tuberculosis. Since then, his more than eight hundred stories and his numerous plays have immensely influenced writers of short fiction and drama. Unconcerned with giving a social or ethical message in his work, Chekhov championed what he called "the holy of holies"—"love and absolute freedom—freedom from violence and lies, whatever their form."

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