Letter to Friedrich Engels, October 15, 1868

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 15 October 1868


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 4, Stuttgart, 1919
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 43


MARX TO ENGELS[1]

IN MANCHESTER

London, 15 October 1868

Tomorrow or the day after tomorrow the Lafargue FAMILY is leaving for Paris. This will greatly reduce our HOUSEHOLD EXPENSES.

I have written to A. Frank et Co. in Paris. Since I know that he has sold COPIES OF MY Anti-Proudhon[2] as recently as in the past few weeks, I asked in my letter for accounts of the whole affair, REMINDING MR Frank that he and Vogler were only my agents de vente[3] and that I had paid all the printing costs. Thereupon I received, a few days ago, the following reply:

'J'ai l'honneur, Monsieur, de vous informer que j'ai racheté la Maison A. Frank le 21 Oct. 1865, sans actifs et passifs.— Il y avait à cette époque 92 exemplaires de votre brochure Misère de la philosophie en magasin que je tiens à votre disposition.— Quant à ce qui pourrait vous revenir de solde, il faudra vous adresser soit à.M r Vogler soit au curateur de la succession de mon prédécesseur, M r Bassot, 58 rue de Bondy, Paris, etc. per F. Vieweg, propriétaire actuel de la maison A. Frank.'[4]

I shall now grant Lafargue power of attorney to collect the 92 exemplaires, which he will sell amongst his friends. For the remainder (there were 1,500 exemplaires), I am granting Schily power of attorney to start legal proceedings. I do not know Vogler's whereabouts, but his former associé Shee still has a librairie[5] in Brussels, where I can mobilise a handful of young lawyers belonging to our Association. It would be nice if I could still squeeze out some cash.

Attached packet of the Social-Demokrat, upon which you should please write me a few marginal notes (regarding the TRADES UNIONS stories) since I did not have the time to read the stuff. The letter to Schweitzer has gone off.[6] Enclosed also the latest number of Lanterne and a pamphlet about Plon-Plon, said to be written by Charras.[7]

Apropos. I had a meeting with Beesly. The SUB-EDITOR of Morley (the EDITOR for the SCIENTIFIC DEPARTMENT) declared that the argument was irrefutable. However, the article was too 'DRY' for A MAGAZINE. Beesly asked me to put it in a more popular form, without sacrificing the SCIENTIFIC POINTS. This is RATHER DIFFICULT. However, I'll try. In particular, he wants a longer introduction, including personalia about MY PAST and the book's impact in Germany. This, OF COURSE, you must write. But there is time for this until I send you the BULK of the article. The whole shit is then to go into The Westminster Review. Salut

Your

K. M.

Have you read A. Slade: 'Turkey and the Crimean War'? It appears that 'Bosh' is a Turkish word, since Slade says: 'bosh lakerdeh' (empty words).[8]

  1. ↑ An excerpt from this letter was first published in English in: K. Marx and F. Engels, Letters on 'Capital', London, New Park Publications, 1983.
  2. ↑ A reference to the distribution of Marx's book The Poverty of Philosophy... (see present edition, Vol. 6), which was written in 1847 in Brussels and published (1,500 copies) that same year by two publishers simultaneously, Vogler's in Brussels and Frank's in Paris, who in 1865 sold his business to publisher F. Vieweg. The publication was undertaken on a commission basis: Marx paid part of the expenses as the author and was to receive a certain sum from the sale of each copy. By 1868, the demand for the book grew steeply owing to the mounting campaign against the Proudhonist elements in the International, while the book became a bibliographical rarity. In view of this, Marx applied, in October 1868, to the Paris publisher, who, as is clear from the letter, had stopped the sales altogether. Nothing is known about the results of Lafargue's negotiations on this issue.
  3. ↑ selling agents
  4. ↑ 'I have the honour to inform you, Sir, that I repurchased the Maison A. Frank on 21 Oct. 1865, without assets and liabilities.—At that time, 92 copies of your pamphlet The Poverty of Philosophy were in stock, and I hold them at your disposal.— With regard to any possible balance due to you, you should address yourself to Mr Vogler or to my predecessor's executor, Mr Bassot, 58 rue de Bondy, Paris, etc. F. Vieweg, current owner of the Maison A. Frank.' Marx quotes Vieweg's letter of 12 October 1868.
  5. ↑ bookshop
  6. ↑ See this volume, pp. 132-35.
  7. ↑ [J. B. A. Charras,] Monsieur Napoléon Bonaparte (Jérôme).
  8. ↑ A. Slade, Turkey and the Crimean War: A Narrative of Historical Events, London, 1867, Glossary, p. 449.