THE FIRST PUBLISHED TEXT OF ANTON CHEKHOV`S CHERRY ORCHARD, 1904, CHEKHOV, Anton Pavlovich (1860-1904). Vishnevyi sad [The Cherry Orchard], contained in: Sbornik tovarishchestva "Znanie" za 1903 god [Collection of the Association "Znanie" ["Knowledge"] for the year 1903]. St. Petersburg: "Znanie," 1904. 8vo, pp. [iv], 318, [2]; a good copy in original wrappers with full margin.

This was the first printing of Chekhov`s The Cherry Orchard. It is included here in book II of the Znanie almanac for 1903, on pp. 29-105, together with pieces by Kuprin, Skitalets, Chirikov, and Yeshkevich. It is the earliest version of the text. The first book-form edition followed later the same year (St. Petersburg, Marx, 1904), and introduced certain changes and corrections.

As Ernest Simmons notes in Chekhov, 1963 (p.606), Chekhov received an offer from Gorky to publish the play in the annual of his firm Znanie, at a remuneration of fifteen hundred roubles a signature, the highest Chekhov had ever received. Because of his contract with Marx, which restricted publication of new works to newspapers and magazines, or to books that appeared for charitable purposes, it seemed at first that Chekhov would have to reject this alluring proposal. Violation of the contract carried a penalty at the rate of five thousand roubles for every printed signature. However, a way out was found. Both Chekhov and Gorky were interested in an appeal to aid indigent women medical students in Petersburg, and the Znanie Annual, including "The Cherry Orchard," was published on behalf of this charitable purpose.