Letter to Friedrich Engels, January 25, 1868

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 25 January 1868


First published abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 4, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in MEGA, Abt. III, Bd. 4, Berlin, 1931
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 42


MARX TO ENGELS[1]

IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 25 January 1868

DEAR FRED,

I went out again yesterday for the first time, and the scar will be healed in 1-2 days. Naturally I am still weak after this bad attack.

I hope that your indisposition is only the momentary outcome of the week on the spree. In any case, you must not neglect your health for my sake or for ANY BODY OR THING ELSE.

In last week's Saturday Review there is a note about my book.[2] I have not seen it yet, and also do not know who wrote it. Borkheim has communicated the FACT to me.

As regards Liebknecht, one should no longer butter him up. This young man very much likes to play the 'protector', as he already showed once earlier when he was in London. This is also shown by his latest letter to you.[3] He feels very important, and au cas de besoin nous ferons notre petit bonhomme de chemin sans lui et malgré lui.[4] What magnanimity that he has reprinted the preface, which nearly all the papers printed months ago![5] And in addition he has actually had 2 COPIES of my book sent to Contzen and the editor of the Volks-Zeitung! To SHOW HIM THE COLD SHOULDER is best. Apart from this, I do not believe that he has yet read 15 pages of the book. He had not read Herr Vogt a whole year after it had appeared, and that was not very heavy reading. His motto is: teach but not learn.

As far as the 'Lassalleans' are concerned, I only deal with the TRADE UNIONS, COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES, etc. in Volume II.[6] I think therefore that I shall at present only take the initiative with regard to 'Lassalle' if a direct occasion should offer itself.

Regarding the way to deal with the Viennese, I shall write to you shortly, when my head is ALL RIGHT again.

Please return the enclosed letters from Kugelmann and Kertbény. I have not yet replied. Coppel the Great hasn't turned up yet.

It would be beneficial in my present state if you could let me have a shipment of your more FULLFLAVOURED claret (also SOME HOCK or Moselle).

Card, the Pole, has written from Geneva and offered himself as French translator, he seems to have a book-seller in Geneva. Through my wife I have had this letter sent to Schily, so that he can use it in Paris to further the affair.[7] Card is absolutely unsuitable, except to give Moses[8] a fright.

For 2-3 weeks I shall do absolutely no work (i.e. writing), at the most read; and as soon as the wound is completely healed (in the meantime, I THINK ONLY FOR ONE OR TWO DAYS, the bad part rubs and itches when I walk) then I shall do a lot of walking. It would be dreadful if a 3rd monster were to erupt.

And now, salut, MY DEAR BOY.

Your

K. Marx

  1. ↑ Part of this letter was published in English for the first time in Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Selected Letters. The Personal Correspondence, 1844-1877, Boston, Toronto, 1981.
  2. ↑ A review of Volume One of Capital in The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art, 18 January 1868.
  3. ↑ A reference to the letter TO ENGELS from Liebknecht of 20 January 1868, in which Liebknecht told Engels that, while sharing his critical attitude towards the petty-bourgeois South-German People's Party and the League of Peace and Freedom, he nevertheless did not believe it possible to break with them for tactical reasons. Liebknecht also informed Engels about the steps he had taken for the popularisation of Volume One of Capital.
  4. ↑ if needs be we shall do our business without him and despite him
  5. ↑ Part of the Preface to Volume One of Capital was soon published in a number of German periodicals such as Die Zukunft, No. 206 of 4 September 1867; Der Beobachter, No. 210 of 7 September 1867; Der Vorbote, Nos. 9-11 of September-November 1867; and Demokratisches Wochenblatt of 4 and 11 January 1868. The English translation of part of the Preface done by Georg Eccarius was published in The Bee-Hive Newspaper, No. 308 of 7 September 1867; the French translation done by Paul Lafargue and Marx's daughter Laura appeared in Le Courrier français, No. 106 of 1 October 1867 and in the Belgian newspaper La Liberté, No. 15 of 13 October 1867.
  6. ↑ of Capital
  7. ↑ This quotation from The Saturday Review given in English was partly used by Marx in the afterword to the second German edition of Volume One of Capital which appeared in 1872 (see present edition, Vol. 35).
  8. ↑ Moses Hess