On this day, January 29, in 1860, writer and dramatist Anton Chekhov was born in Taganrog, Russia. Although a medical doctor by profession, he asserted, ” Medicine is my lawful wife, and literature is my mistress.” His medical work, however, did bring him into contact with many layers of society, which gave him grist for his literary works. Four of his plays (The Seagull, Three Sisters, Uncle Vanya and The Cherry Orchard) are considered modern masterpieces, and the new techniques he brought to his short stories, including stream-of-consciousness prose and a lack of moral finality, innovated the works of many writers who followed in his footsteps. He died from tuberculosis in 1904, at age 44.
