Quote: Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. (Anton Chekhov compressed)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Back on August 16, 2012 Bill Mullins sent a message to the list about
an article at Buzzfeed titled "26 Indispensable Writing Tips From
Famous Authors". Now the title is "30 Indispensable Writing Tips From
Famous Authors":

http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/writing-advice-from-famous-authors

One tip was attributed to Anton Chekhov: Don't tell me the moon is
shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.

The Quote Investigator website now has an analysis. I hypothesized
that the expression was constructed as a summary of the instructions
Anton Chekhov gave to his brother in a letter written in 1886.

http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/07/30/moon-glint/

Here is a key citation, I think:

[ref] 1954, The Unknown Chekhov: Stories and Other Writings Hitherto
Untranslated by Anton Chekhov, Translated by Avrahm Yarmolinsky,
Section: Introduction, Start Page 9, Quote Page 14, Noonday Press, New
York. (Verified on paper) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
In May, 1886, Chekhov wrote to his brother Alexander, who had literary
ambitions: "In descriptions of Nature one must seize on small details,
grouping them so that when the reader closes his eyes he gets a
picture. For instance, you’ll have a moonlit night if you write that
on the mill dam a piece of glass from a broken bottle glittered like a
bright little star, and that the black shadow of a dog or a wolf
rolled past like a ball."
[End excerpt]

More information is provided in the QI article. Feedback and
additional citations are welcome. Thanks.
Garson

On Thu, Aug 16, 2012 at 11:27 AM, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC
<Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill AMRDEC" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      suspect quotes on writing  (UNCLASSIFIED)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> Buzzfeed just posted "26 Indispensable Writing Tips From Famous
> Authors":
>
> http://www.buzzfeed.com/expresident/writing-advice-from-famous-authors
>
> I know the first one is mis-attributed; as I've looked it up:
>
> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1103A&L=ADS-L&D=0&I=-3
> &Y=bill.mullins%40us.army.mil&d=No+Match%3BMatch%3BMatches&P=98578
>
> I suspect that some of the others are hinky as well.
> Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
> Caveats: NONE
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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