#RIP #OTD in 1885 poet, strongly identified with her native Galicia and the celebration of the Galician language, Rosalía de Castro died from uterine cancer in Padrón, Spain, aged 48. Panteón de Galegos Ilustres, Convent of San Domingos de Bonaval in Santiago de Compostela, Spain
On this day in 1904, playwright and short story writer Anton Chekhov died from tuberculosis at the age of 44 in Badenweiler, German Empire. Born Anton Pavlovich Chekhov on 29 January 1860 in Taganrog, Ekaterinoslav Governorate, Russian Empire. In my opinion, he is among the greatest writers of short fiction in history. His career as a playwright produced four classics, and his best short stories are highly regarded. Along with Henrik Ibsen and August Strindberg, Chekhov is often referred to as one of the three seminal figures in the birth of early modernism in the theatre. Chekhov practiced as a medical doctor throughout most of his literary career: “Medicine is my lawful wife”, he once said, “and literature is my mistress.”
Chekhov renounced the theatre after the reception of The Seagull in 1896, but the play was revived to acclaim in 1898 by Konstantin Stanislavski’s Moscow Art Theatre, which subsequently also produced Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya and premiered his last two plays, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard.
Chekhov had at first written stories only for financial gain, but as his artistic ambition grew, he made formal innovations which have influenced the evolution of the modern short story. He made no apologies for the difficulties this posed to readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them.
in 1882
in country clothes
(left) with brother Nikolai in 1882
family and friends in 1890 (Top row, left to right) Ivan, Alexander, Father; (second row) unknown friend, Lika Mizinova, Masha, Mother, Seryozha Kiselev; (bottom row) Misha, Anton
classic look: pince-nez, hat and bow-tie
in 1893
Osip Braz: Portrait of Anton Chekhov
with Leo Tolstoy at Yalta, 1900
with Olga, 1901, on their honeymoon
Anton Chekhov Monument in Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky, Russia
On 25 May 1901, Chekhov married Olga Knipper quietly, owing to his horror of weddings. She was a former protegée and sometime lover of Nemirovich-Danchenko whom he had first met at rehearsals for The Seagull. Up to that point, Chekhov, known as “Russia’s most elusive literary bachelor,” had preferred passing liaisons and visits to brothels over commitment. He had once written:
By all means I will be married if you wish it. But on these conditions: everything must be as it has been hitherto — that is, she must live in Moscow while I live in the country, and I will come and see her … I promise to be an excellent husband, but give me a wife who, like the moon, won’t appear in my sky every day.
The letter proved prophetic of Chekhov’s marital arrangements with Olga: he lived largely at Yalta, she in Moscow, pursuing her acting career.
By May 1904, Chekhov was terminally ill with tuberculosis. Mikhail Chekhov recalled that “everyone who saw him secretly thought the end was not far off, but the nearer [he] was to the end, the less he seemed to realise it.” On 3 June, he set off with Olga for the German spa town of Badenweiler in the Black Forest, from where he wrote outwardly jovial letters to his sister Masha, describing the food and surroundings, and assuring her and his mother that he was getting better. In his last letter, he complained about the way German women dressed.
The Final Footprint
Chekhov’s death has become one of the great stories of literary history, retold, embroidered, and fictionalised many times since, notably in the short story “Errand” by Raymond Carver. In 1908, Olga wrote this account of her husband’s last moments:
Anton sat up unusually straight and said loudly and clearly (although he knew almost no German): Ich sterbe (“I’m dying”). The doctor calmed him, took a syringe, gave him an injection of camphor, and ordered champagne. Anton took a full glass, examined it, smiled at me and said: “It’s a long time since I drank champagne.” He drained it and lay quietly on his left side, and I just had time to run to him and lean across the bed and call to him, but he had stopped breathing and was sleeping peacefully as a child …
Chekhov’s body was transported to Moscow in a refrigerated railway car meant for oysters. Some of the thousands of mourners followed the funeral procession of a General Keller by mistake, to the accompaniment of a military band. Chekhov was buried next to his father at the Novodevichy Cemetery, Moscow.
On this day in 1997, fashion designer and founder of Gianni Versace S.p.A., Gianni Versace died from a gunshot wound on the steps of his Miami Beach mansion, the former Casa Casuarina now known as “The Villa By Barton G.”, as he returned from a morning walk on Ocean Drive, at the age of 50. Versace was shot by Andrew Cunanan, who later shot himself, for unknow reasons. Born Gianni Marcus Versace on 2 December 1946, in Reggio Calabria, Italy, where he grew up with his elder brother Santo and younger sister Donatella, along with their father and dressmaker mother, Francesca.
Gianni Versace S.p.A., an international fashion house, produces accessories, fragrances, make-up and home furnishings as well as clothes. He also designed costumes for the theatre and films. Versace met his partner Antonio D’Amico, a model, in 1982. Their relationship lasted until Versace’s murder.
The Final Footprint – Versace’s body was cremated and his cremains were returned to the family’s estate near Cernobbio, Italy, and inurned in the family vault at Moltrasio cemetery near Lake Como. Versace’s brother, Santo, and Jorge Saud were named the new CEOs of Gianni Versace S.p.A. Versace’s sister, Donatella, became the new head of design. In his will, Versace left 50% of his fashion empire to his niece Allegra Versace. Her younger brother, Daniel, inherited Versace’s rare artwork collection. Versace was portrayed by Franco Nero in the 1998 film The Versace Murder, and by Enrico Colantoni in the 2013 Lifetime film House of Versace.
#RIP #OTD in 2012 actress (Gentleman’s Agreement, All About Eve, The Snake Pit, A Letter to Three Wives, High Society) Celeste Holm died at her Manhattan Central Park West apartment, aged 95. Cremation
#RIP #OTD in 2017 actor (North by Northwest; Mission: Impossible; Tucker; Crimes and Misdemeanors; Ed Wood; Rounders), Martin Landau died at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles from internal bleeding and heart disease aged 89. Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, New York
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