Letter to Friedrich Engels, January 5, 1854

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 5 January 1854


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 2, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, Abt. III, Bd. 1, 1929. Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 39


MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 5 January 1854 28 Dean Street, Soho

Dear Engels,

Since the day you left,[1] the whole FAMILY has been prostrated by influenza, etc. Musch and I are still very much down. Thus through physical causes I have already been cheated of 3 articles for the Tribune which, considering the weather, is dur.[2] Let me know if you can provide me with one article for next week, on any subject you like. But I must know for certain if and when.

Being still confined to my room, I have not, of course, been able to keep up with the newspapers. Pieper tells me that in today's Morning Herald there is a long article on the Russian plan of campaign[3] The main theatre to be Asia, not Europe. They proposed to take Constantinople from the direction of Asia Minor (!) etc., etc.

Three volumes of Joseph Bonaparte's Memoirs[4] have so far come out. The third contains the old Napoleon's correspondence on the Peninsular campaign.[5]

Just now I was interrupted by Musch, who is raving and thrashing about, etc., in a high fever. I hope the little man will soon recover.

[6]

Received a letter from Dana on Monday. Unable to print the article under my name[7] as it would damage the 'prestige' of the paper. Your military articles have created a great stir. A rumour is circulating in New York that they were written by General Scott.[8]

Adieu,

Your

K. M.

  1. ↑ Engels went to London for Christmas 1853 and left for Manchester on 1 January 1854
  2. ↑ hard
  3. ↑ J. B. Slick, 'To the Editor of The Morning Herald', The Morning Herald, No. 22361, 5 January 1854.
  4. ↑ J. Bonaparte, Mémoires et correspondance politique et militaire du roi Joseph.
  5. ↑ Napoleonic France against Spain in 1808-14 which ended in France's defeat
  6. ↑ In compliance with Marx's request Engels wrote 'The European War' on 8 January.
  7. ↑ Charles Dana's letter to Mrs Marx of 16 December 1853 in which he presumably wrote about Engels' article 'The War on the Danube' published in the New-York Daily Tribune on 16 December as a leader. A week earlier, on 7 December, Dana had published another article by Engels, 'Progress of the Turkish War', also as a leader (see present edition, Vol. 12)
  8. ↑ Dana wrote to Mrs Marx about this on 16 December 1853