Anton Chekhov

Born in 1860, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov's father was a grocer and a 3d rank Member of the Merchant's Guild. His father was very religious and a tyrant who used his small children as his slaves. At the age of 15 Chekhov was abandoned by his father and lived alone while finishing school. He received a scholarship to the Moscow University Medical School in1979 and graduated in 1884 as a medical doctor.
He published short stories and humorous sketches under a pen name and kept his real name for serious medical publications. As a practicing doctor Chekhov kept writing and his first play was Ivanov. He created his own writing style based on originality and brevity. Chekhov used hints and subtle nuances and objectives. In 1888 Chekhov was awarded the Pushkin Prize form the Russian Academy of Sciences.
In 1890 Chekhov journeyed to the prison island of Sakhalin. He studies and watched thousands of convicts and in 1894 he published a social analytical essay on the Russian penitentiary system, Island of Sakhalin. His research was later used by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. In 1897 Chekhov returned to his medical practice to stop a cholera epidemic.
Chekhov became a playwright who was highly influential in the modern theater. Three sisters, Cherry Orchard, Seagull and Uncle used anticlimax and inferred emotion to get points across. Olga Knipper-Chekhova who played the starring role in his plays became his wife and in 1898. They moved to the Black Sea Resort of Yalta. Chekhov died on July 15, 1904 in Badenweiler, Germany.