Letter to Friedrich Engels, October 4, 1868

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 4 October 1868


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 4, Stuttgart, 1913
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 43


MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

London, 4 October 1868

DEAR FRED,

In the package which you will receive simultaneously there are:

1. Two letters from Eichhoff the forgotten one and one which arrived today; 2. Letter from Liebknecht; 3. Letter from Borkheim; 4. Manuscript and letter from J. Dietzgen; 5. Letter from the Russian Danielson in Petersburg[1] ; 6. Letter from Lessner. Since most of these letters (which you must return with the exception of the manuscript) have only just arrived, in all haste the following:[2]

Ad No. 5. I am naturally extraordinarily pleased to hear that my book will appear in Petersburg in Russian translation. I shall immediately send the people what they requested[3] (as far as I can) as soon as you have returned the letter.

Ad 4. Read through the manuscript. My view is that J. Dietzgen would do best if he condensed all his ideas into 2 printed sheets and had them printed in his name as a tanner. If he publishes them at the intended length, he will make a fool of himself because of the lack of dialectical development and the running in circles. Read it through and write your opinion.

Ad 3. To understand Gaudissart's[4] letter, briefly the following: He wanted to write about the Pan-Slav democratic movement; for this I gave him your articles about Bakunin in the Neue Rheinische Zeitung.[5] His plan to appear with you before the public is excellent, but there is no hurry because he has not turned out his 25 printed sheets by a long way yet.

Secondly, he maintained a certain correspondence, despite my warning, with Dr Crapper, alias Elard Biscamp. Now that the latter has directly attacked me and the International in the Weser-Zeitung and the Augsburgerin,[6] he proposes, as you see, to publish in Liebknecht's paper his latest exchange of letters with Biscamp. Ce brave[7] Gaudissart! In these letters he presents himself as my patron, and lets Biscamp flatter him. I wrote to him by return that I would have to protest tooth and nail against this sort of thing.[8] For greater security I immediately wrote to Liebknecht that he must not print the Borkheim-Biscamp correspondence under any circumstances.

Ad 1 and 2. I have sent to Liebknecht for his political review an entrefilet[9] about M. Hirsch (because of the 'International'), and, at the same time, a few blows at Biscamp as correspondent of the Weser-Zeitung and the Augsburger.

Ad 6. The £100 (of which ABOUT £35 for Laura) I have used to pay off the most urgent things and only kept as much on hand as is necessary in order not to be absolutely penniless. I still have about £100 of debts and will soon send you a list of the ITEMS so that you can see that there are no useless expenditures on my part. Now I received the enclosed note from Lessner today. His wife is mortally ill, and it would be very kind of you to enable me to pay him off something.

IN ALL HASTE.

Your

K. M.

  1. ↑ Marx is referring to a letter written to him by Nikolai Danielson on 30 (18) September 1868, with a postscript by Nikolai Lyubavin dated 14 (2) October. Danielson wrote: 'The significance of your latest work—Capital. Critique of Political Economy—has prompted one of local publishers (N. Polyakov) to undertake its translation into Russian. The various attendant circumstances make it desirable to publish the second volume simultaneously with the first. Therefore, as the publisher's representative, I request you, should you consider it possible, to send me sheets of the second volume as soon as they have been published.' In his reply, Marx enclosed a note on his own literary and political activities, which was used in the preface to Capital's Russian edition (see this volume, pp. 123-25 and Note 196).
  2. ↑ See also this volume, p. 135.
  3. ↑ See this volume, pp. 123-25.
  4. ↑ Sigismund Borkheim's
  5. ↑ F. Engels, Democratic Pan-Slavism.
  6. ↑ [E. Biscamp,] 'London, 25. Sept.', Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 273, 29 September 1868 (published in the column Grossbritannien, signed A).
  7. ↑ Good old
  8. ↑ The letter in question has not been found.
  9. ↑ a short article—K. Marx, 'Connections Between the International Working Men's Association and English Working Men's Organisations'.