Writing seven years after the 1904 death of Anton Chekhov, Maria, the sister of the renowned Russian short story writer and playwright, recommended Chekhov's friend and Russia's first Nobel Laureate for literature, Ivan Alexandrovich Bunin, as the most worthy candidate to pen Chekhov's biography. Yet it would not be until 1947 that Bunin would begin to undertake this unfinished full-length work on Chekhov, presented in English translation here. According to editor and translator Marullo (Russian and East European studies, U. of Notre Dame), who also provides an introduction describing the personal and literary relationship between the two writers, the volume is important for several reasons, most notably Bunin's attempt to rescue Chekhov's writings from distorting political and aesthetic assessments by Soviets, Russian émigrés (of whom Bunin was one), and Westerners alike; Bunin's humanizing opposition to the all-too-Russian deifying cult of the writer; and Bunin's judgement that Chekhov's short stories were superior to his dramas both artistically and as critiques of modernity. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)