Letter to Laura Lafargue, December 18, 1871

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 18 December 1871


First published, in the language of the original (English), in Annali, an. 1, Milan, 1958
Reproduced from the original
Published in English in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


MARX TO LAURA LAFARGUE

IN SAN SEBASTIAN

[London,] 18 December 1871

My dear Laura,

In the first instance my best thanks for the offer of Toole.[1] I accept it under two express conditions,

1) that if the enterprise fails, I have to pay the sum advanced with the usual interest upon it,

2) that Toole does not advance more than the 2,000 frs. The expression of the Editor that this is only wanted for the beginning seems to me ominous. At all events Toole must stipulate that his obligations refer only to this 'beginning'.

I prefer in every respect a cheap popular edition. It is a fortunate combination that a second German edition has become necessary just now. I am fully occupied (and can therefore write only a few lines) in arranging it, and the French translator will of course have to translate the amended German edition.[2] (I shall forward him the old one with the changes inserted.) Möhmchen is just trying to find out the whereabouts of Keller.[3]

She has written for that purpose to his sister. If he is not to be found (and in due time), the translator of Feuerbach would be the man.

The Russian edition (after the first German edition) will appear January next in St Petersburg.[4]

Many kisses to you and Schnappy,[5] Happy New Year to Toole and all.

Kakadou's[6] old master

  1. ↑ Paul Lafargue's nickname
  2. ↑ Joseph Roy
  3. ↑ A reference to Louis Keller, a possible translator of Volume I of Capital into French
  4. ↑ Volume I of Capital was translated into Russian by Hermann Lopatin, Nikolai Danielson and Nikolai Lyubavin. It was the first translation of his work into any foreign language. The book was published in full in the spring of 1872 except for the portrait of Marx, because the censor had forbidden its reproduction in the Russian edition.
  5. ↑ Charles Etienne Lafargue
  6. ↑ Laura Lafargue's nickname