Growing up in a middle-class family on the shores of the Sea of Azov in pre-Revolution Russia, Anton and his sister and five brothers went fishing, played tennis, and spent leisurely days in the country at their grandfather's. A great lover of nature, young Anton was robust with activity and intelligence, always making jokes, affectionate and playful with his siblings. They also worked hard in their father's shop (now a museum, the "Chekhov Shop") where Anton collected memories and ideas for future stories based on the people he met there. He studied music and was a voracious reader, spending afternoons at the Taganrog town library (now named after him). For many years until his death he sent books to be added to its collections. He read literature and the Greek classics including Homer, and also works by Miguel de Cervantes, Ivan Goncharov, William Shakespeare, Ivan Turgenev and Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. A French governess taught the children languages. To add to his already vivid imagination, Anton's nurse entertained the children with fantastical tales while their mother told them of her travels around the world with her father as a young girl. "Our talents we got from our father, but our soul from our mother." (from The Letters of Anton Chekhov, translated by Constance Clara Garnett, 1861-1946). Anton's father, born into serfdom, had a great love for music. He was a very strict, religious man but they were a close-knit family, sharing evenings after school singing, playing musical instruments, and singing in the church choir and attending Mass on Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings.
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Anton Chekhov.
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love reading about Chekhov abiding curiosity and budding intellect at a young age. I find that just as inspiring and instructive as his work of art. I was like that, too. We arrived in Chicago, from Manila, and 3rd grade was my first year in an American school. I knew English, but my command and grammar were weak at best. From there, through junior high and high school, I methodically improved my English and read deeply if not quite widely, from Harold Robbins and Erica Jong, to, in time, Sigmund Freud and William Shakespeare. I loved the arts, and I loved life in general, like Chekhov. But as I embark on stage and film projects, among many arts, I don't have any designs per se on following his footsteps. Simply, I want to find learning and inspiration, and carve a path that is uniquely my own.
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