Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860 – 1904) was a Russian playwright and writer, whose plays received international acclaim, and who as a short-story writer is still regarded as virtually unmatched. 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 was a physician by profession. "Medicine is my lawful wife", he once said, "and literature is my mistress."