Peasants and Other Stories

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) the son of a grocer and serf, worked as a physician and ran an open clinic for the poor, while also writing the plays and short stories that have established him as one of the greatest figures in Russian literature. <p/>Edmund Wilson (1895-1972) is widely regarded as the preeminent American man of letters of the twentieth century. Over his long career, he wrote for Vanity Fair, helped edit The New Republic, served as chief book critic for The New Yorker, and was a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books. Wilson was the author of more than twenty books, includingAxel's Castle, Patriotic Gore, and a work of fiction, Memoirs of Hecate County.