Letter to Friedrich Engels, January 8, 1861

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 8 January 1861


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


MARX TO ENGELS[1]

IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 8 January 1861

Dear Frederick,

I myself only had Toby's cry of pain[2] for rapid perusal. Last week, by the way, I ordered 2 COPIES through Petsch, one of which you shall have.

Siebel's present address is Carl Siebel jun., Barmen (Kleine Wertherstrasse, No. 25).

Petsch has already advertised the Revelations[3] in the Buchhändler-Börsenblatt.[4] I've forbidden him to do so elsewhere out of consideration for Schapper.

As regards booksellers' advertisements of Herr Vogt, I have so far seen them only in the Reform,[5] the Publicist[6] the Freischütz,[7] and the Grenzpost.[8] Incidentally, I got Petsch to write, under my supervision, to all the chaps concerned, and thus the mystère will resolve itself within the next few days. He thinks it doesn't depend on the newspapers but on the booksellers, who have been putting the thing off until after Christmas and the New Year. And the advertisement goes into the newspapers only through the agency of the bookseller who is responsible for local sales. Mais nous verrons![9]

You can see what a hapless creature I am! Last Wednesday[10] (JUST A WEEK AGO) I got a cold and cough accompanied by a stabbing pain in the region of the liver, so that not only coughing, but turning my carcass from one side to the other, caused me physical PAINS. This seemed to me to indicate an inflammation. It was the first time I had felt a dolor[11] of this kind, although Allen had often asked me searchingly whether I had. This time—particularly since I am already encumbered with a hair-raising DOCTORS BILL, not to mention other BILLS,— I have so FAR been treating myself. The treatment was simple—no smoking, CASTOR OIL, drink only lemonade, eat little, no spirits whatever, do nothing, stay at home (since the cold air at once sets me coughing). I'm not quite well yet and somewhat weak. By the by, you might sometime ask Gumpert what one ought to do about such acute attacks, should they recur. I shall ask Allen as soon as I can go out again and am once more completely fit.

Salut.

Your

K. M.

My wife (who is slowly improving, but still very weak) and the children send their regards.

  1. ↑ An excerpt from this letter was first published in English in The Letters of Karl Marx. Selected and Translated with Explanatory Notes and an Introduction by Saul K. Padover, Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1979.
  2. ↑ 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 De cember 1860, and No. 1, 1 January 1861.
  3. ↑ K. Marx, Revelations Concerning the Communist Trial in Cologne.
  4. ↑ Börsenblatt für den Deutschen Buchhandel, Nos. 150, 151 and 153, 5, 7, and 12 December 1860.
  5. ↑ Die Reform, Nos. 148, 150 (supplement) and 152, 10, 15 and 19 December 1860.
  6. ↑ Publicist, Nos. 295 and 296, 15 and 16 December 1860.
  7. ↑ Der Freischütz, No. 150, 15 December 1860.
  8. ↑ Genfer Grenzpost, No. 12, 22 December 1860.
  9. ↑ But we shall see!
  10. ↑ 2 January
  11. ↑ pain