Anton Chekhov, who came from peasant stock and was born in Taganrog, on the Sea of Azov, in 1860, paid his way through medical school by writing short comic sketches for various popular publications. By the time he became a doctor, his gift had also made him one of the great masters of the short story, and he continued in both careers until literature finally took him over. He is also one of the major playwrights in the history of Russian and Western theater. For many years he suffered from tuberculosis, without admitting it to himself, and it finally took his life in 1904.
Together, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have translated works by Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Gogol, Bulgakov, Leskov, Pushkin, and Pasternak. They were twice awarded the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize (for Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina). They are married and live in France.