“The geniuses of all ages and of all lands speak different languages but the same flame burns in them all. Oh, if you only knew what unearthly happiness my soul feels now from being able to understand them.”

Russian playwright, short story writer, and physician

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian playwright, short story writer, and physician. He worked in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is known for the lasting influence of his plays and stories. Chekhov’s stage work produced four classics, and his finest short fiction has long been admired by writers and critics. He is also often named, alongside Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, as one of the key figures in the rise of early modernist theatre. He practiced medicine professionally while writing literature.