Dear Writer, Dear Actress
The Love Letters of Anton Chekhov and Olga Knipper
Edited by Jean Benedetti
Translated by Jean Benedetti
"An extraordinary relationship and Benedetti does an extraordinary job in presenting it here" (Irish Times)
The five year friendship and marriage of the writer Anton Chekhov and the actress Olga Knipper, who created many of the central female roles in his plays, is one of the most extraordinary love stories in the history of the theatre. Because of Knipper's work at the Moscow Art Theatre and Chekhov's illness which bound him to Yalta, their relationship flourished through a constant stream of letters between them. Temperamentally the actress and writer were at odds and the letters reflect their life together, as tempestuous, teasing and spontaneous as the many relationships found in Chekhov's stories and plays. The volume is a testimony to the deep, passionate, improbable love of Chekhov and Knipper which survived almost insurmountable obstacles. "An illuminating and heartfelt volume . . . Benedetti's translations have a welcome contemporary flair and provide an enjoyable, romantic read" (Publishers Weekly)
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About Jean Benedetti Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) first turned to writing as a medical student at Moscow University, from which he graduated in 1884. The first three full-length plays to be staged, Ivanov (1887), The Wood Demon (1889) and The Seagull (1896) were initially failures. But the Moscow Arts Theatre's revival of The Seagull two years later was successful and was followed by his masterpieces Uncle Vanya (1889), Three Sisters (1901), and The Cherry Orchard in 1904, the year of his death.
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