![]() In the decades that followed, Chekhov’s death became, in the words of journalist and biographer Janet Malcolm, “one of the great set pieces in literary history.” Raymond Carver fictionalized it in his final short story, “ Errand,” published in 1987. The stillness was interrupted by a huge black moth, “which kept crashing painfully into the light bulbs and darting about the room,” she wrote. “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 was soon silent forever.” The playwright’s wife, actress Olga Knipper-Chekhova, later remembered, “He awoke in the early hours of the night, and for the first time in his life himself requested that the doctor be sent for.” When the German doctor arrived, “Anton sat up unusually straight and said loudly and clearly in German (of which he knew very little): Ich sterbe (‘I’m dying’).” The doctor ordered a bottle of champagne be brought up. Despite the champagne the mood was somber. ![]()
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