Gooseberries | Author Biography

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born on January 16, 1860, in Taganrog, Russia, the third of six children. Chekhov’s father, a grocer, was intense, religious, and demanding of his family. Chekhov’s paternal grandfather was a serf who managed to buy his freedom, enabling his descendants to lead better lives. Chekhov was a good student whose interests included writing, journalism, and drama. His mother’s storytelling ability is often credited as the source of Chekhov’s talent. When his father’s grocery store failed in 1876, the family moved to Moscow, but Chekhov stayed behind alone to finish school. Upon graduating, he received a scholarship to attend medical school at the University of Moscow. While in medical school, he supported his impoverished family by writing for humor magazines. In 1884, he began practicing medicine and also saw the publication of the first collection of his writing.

Anton Chekhov
Anton Chekhov

In 1901, Chekhov married Olga Knipper, a well-known actress in Moscow. Chekhov’s health had been steadily declining since his twenties, when he suffered the first symptoms of tuberculosis. His illness forced him to leave Russia for extended periods of time, and his wife was often unable to accompany him due to her stage success. On July 2, 1904, Chekhov died at a spa in Badenweiler, Germany, with Olga by his side. He is buried in Moscow. Literary historians note that his death marked the end of Russia’s Golden Age of literature, an age that included the works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky Leo Tolstoy and Ivan Turgenev.

Chekhov’s career is often divided into three periods. The first, 1880–1887, spans his years of humor writing. The second, 1888–1893, found Chekhov writing at a more leisurely pace as he began writing more experimental and ‘‘literary’’ works. This period shows Chekhov’s early adherence to Tolstoy’s philosophy of nonresistance to evil. Chekhov abandoned this philosophy after an 1889 trip to a prison camp, when he decided that he could not justify passivity in the face of injustice and cruelty. In fact, Chekhov’s second period is characterized by his growing concern over social and psychological ills. The third period, 1894–1904, reflects his evolution as a complex and innovative writer. ‘‘Gooseberries’’ was published during this time. This period also includes the bulk of Chekhov’s writing as a dramatist. Today, he is still regarded as a master of both short fiction and drama, and numerous modern writers are influenced by his thematic and technical contributions to literature.