Background
Alexander was born into a petty-bourgeois merchant family.
Alexander was born into a petty-bourgeois merchant family.
He studied at the Taganrog gymnasium, graduating in 1875 with a silver medal. He later graduated from the Natural Sciences Department of the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Moscow State University.
He spoke six languages. Upon leaving school he worked in the customs service in Taganrog (1882-1885), Saint St. Petersburg (1885) and Novorossiysk (1885–1886). He was dismissed from his post in Taganrog for a sensational story about the abuses of local customs officials, which he published in the Odessa newspaper.
He wrote under the pseudonyms Agafopod, Agafopod Edinitsin, Aloe and later A. Gray.
From this marriage was born a son, the famous actor Michael Chekhov. He died of throat cancer in 1913 and was buried in the literary section of the Volkovo Cemetery in Saint St. Petersburg.