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TODAY IN LITERARY HISTORY: Remembering Anton Chekhov, Russian playwright and short story writer famous for The Seagull and Three Sisters, on his birthday. (1860)

 


A Russian playwright and short story writer, who is among the greatest writers of short fiction in history. His career as a playwright produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics.

Along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Chekhov is often referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre. Chekhov practiced as a medical doctor throughout most of his literary career: "Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my mistress."

Anton Chekhov’s play The Seagull flops at its premiere in St. Petersburg. The audience boos and Chekhov leaves the audience after the first two acts, spending the rest of the play hiding backstage.  After the performance, Chekhov vowed never to write another play. (He will go on to write several more, among them Uncle Vanya and The Cherry Orchard.)

 


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