Marking the Days: Chekhov and Paine

 Today’s a two-star date on my calendar of literary heroes. It’s a date that also points to the arbitrariness of time.

Anton Chekhov, patron saint of short-story writers, was born on Jan. 29, 1860 in Taganrog, Russia. That’s the New Style date; the Old Style was Jan. 17. Thomas Paine, patron saint of American pamphleteers, was born on Jan. 29, 1737 in Thetford, England. That’s the Old Style date; it converts to Feb. 9 on the current calendar.

I won’t pretend I can sort that out for you and justify why I’m thinking about them both today. I just am.

There are many reasons for people who love short stories and writing to love Chekhov. Here’s one: I like to imagine that I am a sensitive man who is disposed to treat women well. But I rarely read Chekhov without being convicted of the casual cruelty with which men treat women. I think if boys were required to read Chekhov as part of their education, we might live in a better world.

That’s an important reason to like Chekhov. But, as a former newspaperman, I’d love him just for this:

“The word newspaper-writer means, at the very least, a scoundrel. I am one of them; I work with them: I shake hands with them: I’m even told I’ve begun to look like one. But I shan’t die as one.”

Paine, like many of my heroes, was a horribly flawed human being who did something extraordinary. His pamphlet Common Sense was a pivotal event in the American Revolution.

Those fighting for independence came close to losing the war. Many North Americans were loyal to the crown and mother country. Many honest, intelligent people thought the war was a bad idea.

Paine changed public opinion. His argument then is so far from the prevailing views of the country today it’s hard to grasp. His basic argument was that, if we trusted each other, we Americans could make something better of ourselves.

“Suspicion is the companion of mean souls,” he said. We should trust each other to hold up our ends of the bargain. We should build a constitution to “support the right of every separate part, whether of religion, personal freedom, or property.”

Today, when we are suspicious of experts, all minorities and members of other political parties, and we can find a conspiracy theory to erode trust in every national institution, Paine seems badly out of fashion. But he got his finger on what could make the American people great, and for a brief moment, the American people believed that message, and so believed in themselves.

• Sources: Anton Chekhov, Early Short Stories: 1883-1888; New York: The Modern Library, 1999.

Thomas Paine, Collected Writings; New York: Library of America, 1984.