I finished reading Letters of Anton Chekhov to His Family and Friends, translated and with a biographical sketch by Constance Garnett. This is just what it sounds like—a large collection of letters Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) wrote to family and various friends. He wrote to his mother, brothers, and sister, his friend and editor (Suvorin), other writers (including Tolstoy and Gorky), his future wife (the stage actress Olga Knipper), and others.

I read these letters over a period of several months and it was a joy! Chekhov writes about family, the weather, friendship, art and writing, medicine, and the sundry vagaries of life. I especially enjoyed the letters he sent during his long journey to the penal colony of far-away Sakhalin, in which he chronicled the exhilaration and drudgery of travel and the life of the convicts there, among other things.

His gentle wit and humanity shines through the letters and the reader gains a clearer picture of both the writer and the person by the end.

“My holy of holies is the human body, health, intelligence, talent, inspiration, love, and the most absolute freedom—freedom from violence and lying, whatever forms they may take.”