Letter to Friedrich Engels, January 23, 1869

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 23 January 1869


First published in MEGA, Abt. III, Bd. 4, Berlin, 1931
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 43


MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

London, 23 January 1869

DEAR FRED,

We all hope that things are better at 86 Mornington STREET. Scarlet fever is apparently raging throughout England. But perhaps G u m p e r t has m a d e a mistake with Mary Ellen.[1] TUSSY SENDS HER BEST COMPLIMENTS TO HER AND MRS BURNS.

Here there is a preponderance of coughs a n d colds. In my case, things were so bad that, for nearly 2 weeks, I was 'puking' regularly, to use the elegant language of Frau Blind. I went out again yesterday for the first time, and today I am smoking A CIGAR as a test.

The enclosed photogram is sent to you by Jennychen, who is also coughing nastily. She asks for the return of Büchner,[2] since she has studied Darwin[3] and now wishes to get acquainted with the great Büchner. The cross (on the photogram of Jenny) is the Polish 1864 Insurrection Cross.[4]

Tussy has taken over sending receipts for the wine, and believes that to date she has done so.

Enclosed are 2 Borkheimiana. So that he can deposit his 'super intellect' somewhere, and not buzz my ears full, I have recom- mended that he write 'Russian Letters' for Zukunft.[5] Nous verrons.[6]

I have seen from The Money Market Review that Knowles is paying 7s.6d. in the £.[7] How is the old boy doing?

With best greetings to the whole household.

Your

Moor

  1. ↑ Mary Ellen Burns
  2. ↑ L. Büchner, Sechs Vorlesungen...
  3. ↑ Ch. Darwin, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
  4. ↑ A reference to the Polish Insurrection Cross, the symbol of the Polish people's national liberation struggle, given to Jenny Marx on her birthday. Since late 1867 Jenny wore this cross on a green ribbon, the national colour of Ireland, as a sign of mourning for the Fenians executed on 23 November 1867.
  5. ↑ On Marx's advice, Borkheim wrote eleven articles brought together in the series Russische Briefe (Russian letters): on the Russian railways (I-VII), on Mikhail Bakunin (VIII-X), and on the Russian press (XI). They appeared in Die Zukunft in January-August and November of 1869 and in February and March of 1870. In a letter TO ENGELS of 19 January 1869, Borkheim asked him to recommend books for use in his work on the articles.
  6. ↑ we shall see
  7. ↑ See this volume, p. 181.