The Cherry Orchard (Author Biography)

Author Biography

Anton Chekhov was born in Taganrog, Russia, on January 16, 1860. His grandfather had been a serf who had been able to earn enough to buy his freedom and purchase a small home. In 1876, however, Chekhov’s father, a grocer, was forced to move the family to Moscow because of their many debts and the repossession of their home. Chekhov remained behind to finish his studies. His years in school at Taganrog were plagued by poverty, and he often agreed to complete other students’ school work for payment in order to support himself.

In 1880 Chekhov moved to Moscow and entered medical school at the University of Moscow. He graduated with an M.D. in 1884. Chekhov had written hundreds of short stories by the time of his graduation, but he did not consider writing as a career until he moved to St. Petersburg in 1885 and became friends with A. S. Suvorin, editor of the journal Novoe Vremja. By 1888 Chekhov was practicing medicine only during epidemics, focusing instead on his writing.

Though his one-act plays The Boor and The Marriage Proposal were successful, his first full-length plays Ivanov and The Wood Demon were great disappointments. He did not write another full-length play until The Seagull in 1896. Though The Seagull failed in its first production due to its intense psychological realism (very unlike the fashion of the time), the Moscow Art Theater’s production in 1898, which was staged under the supervision of noted producer and actor Konstantin Stanislavsky, was a great success.

This success was followed by Uncle Vanya in 1899, The Three Sisters in 1901, and ultimately The Cherry Orchard in 1904. Chekhov and Stanislavsky argued whether The Cherry Orchard was a comedy, as Chekhov maintained, or a tragedy, as Stanislavsky claimed. The play was finally produced as interpreted by Stanislavsky, and Chekhov was at first absent from the premiere on January 17, 1904, even though his wife Olga Knipper (whom he married in 1901) was an actress in the Moscow Art Theater and a part of the production. He was finally persuaded to attend the premiere just after the second act.

Suffering from tuberculosis during the last years of his life, Chekhov spent much time abroad in European health resorts and was often separated from his wife and family. A few months after attending the premiere of his final play, he died in a Black Forest spa in July, 1904.