Chekhove i ego tvorchestve. Ed. A. B. Derman. Moscow, 1929. A descriptive bibliography of the literature about Chekhov up to 1929.
Fridkes, L. M.: Opisanie memuarov 0 Chekhove. Moscow-Leningrad, 1930. A descriptive bibliography of memoir material on Chekhov in books and periodicals from 1904-1929. Sakharova, E. M.: Anton Pavlovich Chekhov, 1860-1904 — Pamyatka chitatelyu i materialy v pomoshch bibliotekaryu. Moscow, 1954. Among other things, contains a selective annotated bibliography of basic editions and material about the life and literary activities of Chekhov. Polotskaya, E. A.: Anton Pavlovich Chekhov — Rekomendatelnyi ukazatel literatury. Moscow, 1955. One of the best selective listings of material on all phases of Chekhov's works and life. Gitovich, N. I.: Letopis zhizni i tvorchestva A. P. Chekhova. Moscow, 1955. Though in no sense a formal bibliography, a great many titles are listed. This is the most indispensable reference work for all aspects of Chekhov's life and writings. Polotskaya, E. A.: "Bibliografiya vospominanii 0 Chekhove," in Literatur- noe Nasledstvo, Moscow, i960, LXVIII, 881-928. Continues the dcscrip- tivc bibliography of memoir material in the L. M. Fridkes' compilation from 1930 to i960, and also adds a number of titles missed by Fridkes in the earlier period.
For bibliographical aids on English translations of Chekhov, and works about him,[17] see:
Heifetz, Anna: Chekhov in English. Edited and with a foreword by Avrahm Yarmolinsky. New York, 1949. A list of works by and about Chekhov.
Magarshack, David: Chekhov: A Life. London, 1952. See pp. 393-423 for a valuable index of all Chekhov's writings: the English title, followed by the Russian title and its date of publication, and the English translations and their publication dates. Works that had not been translated up to the time of the publication of this book are also indicated.
hi. Editions of Chekhov's Works A number of collected editions of Chekhov's works have appeared since the ten-volume one which he edited in his own lifetime and which was published between 1899 and 1901. However, there is little point in mentioning any of these (data on them may be obtained in the bibliographies mentioned above), since they have all been superseded by:
Polnoe sobranie sochinenii i pisem A. P. Chekhov a. Under the general editorship of S. D. Balukhatyi, V. P. Potemkin, and N. S. Tikhonov. Twenty vols., Moscow, 1944-1951.
This unusually fine scholarly edition, which has been the indispensable major source of the present study of Chekhov, leaves little to be desired in the matter of final texts, variant readings, commentaries, indices, and bibliographical aids which, in important ways, supplement the published bibliographies listed above. However, since the completion of this edition in 1951, new manuscript material has been discovered, especially of early stories, drafts of plays, and hitherto unknown letters.
Much of this fresh material has recently been brought together and published in:
Literatumoe Nasledstvo: Chekhov. Various editors. Vol. LXVIII, Moscow, i960.
The editors promise that additional fresh material on Chekhov's life and works will appear in subsequent issues of Literatumoe Nasledstvo. And apparently a new complete edition of Chekhov's works and letters is being planned, which will include all the material that has appeared since the edition of 1944-1951.
iv. Chekhov's Letters The great importance of Chekhov's letters for an understanding of the man and his works, as well as of the cultural, ideological, and social life of
the 1880's and 1890's, was early recognized and publication of them in periodicals and in book form began to take place not long after his death in 1904. But the first attempt at a systematic collection and publication of Chekhov's letters was undertaken by his sister, in:
Pisma A. P. Chekhova. Ed. M. P. Chekhova. Vols. I-VI. Moscow, 19121916.
However, this edition, containing 1898 letters, was far from complete, and over the years additional letters began to appear in periodicals and occasionally in books.
Perhaps the major contribution of the twenty-volume edition of Chekhov's works (1944-1951) was the publication, in Volumes XIII-XX, of as exhaustive a collection of Chekhov's letters as was possible at that time — 4200 of them. This magnificent service, however, was marred by the omission of a few letters, and by deletions — sometimes indicated and sometimes not — of passages in other letters for ideological reasons.[18] Further, words, phrases, and even sentences, dealing with intimate matters, are occasionally dropped without much cause. (These omissions can often be ascertained by referring back to earlier publications of the letters, especially the six-volume edition of Chekhov's sister.)
A number of the deletions in earlier editions, and the omission of a letter to Meierhold, have been corrected in a twelve-volume edition of Chekhov's collected works, including many of the letters, which has appeared since the edition of 1944-1951:
A. P. Chekhov, Sobranie sochinenii v dvenadtsati tomakh. Moscow, 19541957-
Since the appearance of the complete edition, 147 new letters have been discovered, and these have been published in "Novonaidennye i nesobrannye pisma Chekhova," in Literaturnoe Nasledstvo, Moscow, i960, LXVIII, 149261. Incidentally, in this same publication, a number of mistakes and omissions in the letters in the twenty-volume complete edition are corrected on the basis of the discovery of the originals of ninety-nine letters which were not available to the editors of the complete edition. (See pp. 261-263.)
Chekhov's Letters in English Translation:
A number, unfortunately too few, of Chekhov's letters have been translated into English. The principal collections are:
bibliographical survey / 645
Letters of Anton Chekhov to I lis Family and Friends: With a Biographical
Sketch. Translated by Constancc Gamett. New York, 1920. Letters on the Short Story, the Drama, and Other Literary Topics, by Anton
Chekhov. Selected and Edited by Louis S. Fricdland. London, 1924. The Letters of Anton Pavlovitch Tchekhov to Olga Leonardovna Knipper. Translated from the Russian by Constance Garnctt. New York, n. d. (This is a translation of Pisma A. P. Chekhova k O. L. Knipper-Chekhov. Berlin, 1924.)
The Life and Letters of Anton Tchekhov. Translated and Edited by S. S.
Kotcliansky and Philip Tomlinson. New York, 1925. The Personal Papers of Anton Chekhov. Introduction by Matthew Joscph- son. New York, 1948. Along with translations of the Notebooks and Diary of Chekhov are translations of a selection of letters dealing with the writer, writing, and the theater, 1882-1904. The Selected Letters of Anton Chekhov. Edited by Lillian Hcllman and translated by Sidonic Lcdcrcr. New York, 1955.