Letter to Franz Duncker, May 28, 1859

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 28 May 1859


First published in International Review of Social History, Vol. X, Part 1, 1965
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 40


MARX TO FRANZ DUNCKER

IN BERLIN

London, 28 May 1859

Dear Sir,

You have not thought fit to reply to the letter in which I requested you to advise me of the price of the book.[1] Since the American mail leaves only twice a week, I have thus been prevented from replying to my friends.[2]

After your receipt of my manuscript a fortnight elapsed before I got any acknowledgment. In it you said that printing was to commence a week later. That week turned into more than three weeks. About eight weeks ago Lassalle wrote to say that the thing would be finished by the middle of May. More than three weeks ago I received the last three proof-sheets. The amendments that were called for could easily have been made in a single day. Instead, work would again seem to have been completely suspended during that time, although printing was complete. I hereby declare that I am tired of this systematic and deliberate procrastination and that I hereby demand, and indeed categorically, that you desist from these machinations, the purpose of which seems to me exceedingly suspect. All my acquaintances in England are of the same opinion and have earnestly enjoined me to take the above step.

Yours faithfully,

Dr K. Marx

  1. ↑ K. Marx, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (see this volume, p. 447).
  2. ↑ In his letter of 24 April 1859 from New York, Albrecht Komp told Marx that there were favourable opportunities for selling copies of the first instalment of his book, A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, in the USA. Enclosed was a letter from Joseph Weydemeyer of 27 March 1859 confirming Komp's information.—440, 446, 454