Gusev by Anton Chekhov

Ready to Ship

Discover the third title in Lasting Echoes, a letterpress series celebrating short stories that endure.

Anton Chekhov’s “Gusev” is a natural fit for the Lasting Echoes collection because it demonstrates how a short story can carry profound emotional and philosophical weight. In spare, quietly luminous prose, Chekhov follows an ordinary soldier at the edge of life, revealing themes of mortality, displacement, and compassion without sentimentality or spectacle. The story’s power lies in its restraint — meaning emerges through atmosphere, image, and human presence rather than plot — inviting rereading and reflection. Brief yet deeply affecting, Gusev lingers in the mind long after its final lines, embodying the kind of lasting resonance this collection.

• Printed on an Original Heidelberg Windmill Press on Cotton Lettra paper
• Limited to 100 unnumbered copies
• Measures 8.5" × 5.5"
• Wrapped in extra-thick German-made Gmund paper
• Sewn by hand 
• 28 pages
• Featuring three original linocut illustrations by Blair Allen which reflect the story’s stark beauty and haunting final imagery.

The illustrations in our first three chapbooks of the collection were commissioned from talented recent graduates of Southern Utah University’s BFA program — a collaboration that brings fresh artistic voices into dialogue with these timeless stories. We hope through this series to introduce new artists to the fine press world, giving them an early platform to showcase their work. Each artist will receive a generous percentage of sales, ensuring their creative contributions are meaningfully supported.

An optional slipcase is available with the set, specially designed to house any three chapbooks from the Lasting Echoes collection. It will also be offered separately in the future for readers who wish to build or expand their set over time. Slipcases will be made to order.

Upcoming Lasting Echoes titles will feature short works by Herman Melville, Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, D. H. Lawrence, Henry James, Stephen Crane, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, and more. Multiple titles are already in development to be released in 2026.