Letter to Carl Siebel, January 3, 1861 (1)

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 3 January 1861


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 3, Stuttgart, 1913
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 41

TO CARL SIEBEL IN ELBEREELD


London, 3 January 1861

9 Grafton Terrace, Maitland Park,

Haverstock Hill


Dear Siebel,

HAPPY NEW YEAR! To you and your BETTER HALF. I must acknowledge with many thanks the arrival of my library,[1] ditto of your letter.

Of the 6 COPIES of Herr Vogt you ordered, will you kindly send one to the Kölner Anzeiger, one to the Zeitung für Norddeutschland (Hanover), 3 to any literary journals you please. The main thing is that you yourself should read through a copy and yourself do a notice of it.

As for the Kölner Anzeiger, you might use this little sheet as a weapon against the Kölnische Zeitung.

Sales of the book are going so well that Petsch is 'contemplating' a second edition. In such an event, it would be of the utmost importance that you should, if possible, supply me with everything that appears about it in Germany (I see nothing here but the Allgemeine Zeitung, the Neue Preussische Zeitung, and the Volks-Zeitung), and keep me au courant[2] .

Ed. Meyen has already vented a heartrending 'cry of pain' in the Freischütz.'[3] Vivat sequens!'[4]

Next time, you might try and find time to write to me at somewhat greater length.

I have been very unfortunate of late. My wife was dangerously ill for 5 weeks and I had to lodge the 3 children elsewhere.

As regards Schily, we'll knock some sense into him again.

Salut.

Your

K. Marx

  1. ↑ This refers to Marx's private library which he had collected in the 1840s and left in the safekeeping of his friend, Communist League member Roland Daniels, in Cologne in May 1849, when expelled by the Prussian authorities. Shortly before being arrested in 1851, Daniels hid the books in the warehouse of his brother, a wine merchant. Acquitted at the Cologne Communist trial in late 1852, he came out of prison a gravely sick man. He died of tuberculosis in August 1855. At the beginning of 1856 Daniels' widow took steps to send the books to Marx, but owing to the high transportation costs and other problems, it was not until December 1860 that he received his library, with some books missing. A list of the books of this library, compiled by Daniels and with notes by Marx, has been preserved.
  2. ↑ in the know
  3. ↑ This refers to Eduard Meyen's libellous article 'Die neue Denunciation Karl Vogt's durch K. Marx' in the Freischütz, Nos. 155 and 156, 27 and 29 December 1860, and No. 1, 1 January 1861.
  4. ↑ Long live the sequel!