Anton Chekhov was born on 29 January 1860, the third of six surviving children, in Taganrog, a port on theSea of Azov in southern Russia. Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. In Yalta, Chekhov wrote one of his most famous stories, "The Lady with the Dog" (also called "Lady with Lapdog"), which depicts what at first seems a casual liaison between a married man and a married woman in Yalta. Neither expects anything lasting from the encounter, but they find themselves drawn back to each other, risking the security of their family lives.By May 1904, Chekhov was terminally ill with tuberculosis.  Chekhov's death has become one of "the great set pieces of literary history".