Letter to Laura Lafargue, February 28, 1872

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 28 February 1872


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


MARX TO LAURA LAFARGUE

IN MADRID

[London,] 28 February 1872

My dear child,

You may judge of the overwork—I am being bothered with ever since December last—from my negligence in replying to your own and Paul's letters. Still my heart was always with you. In fact, the health of poor little Schnappy[1] occupies my thoughts more than everything, else, and I feel even a little angry at Paul's last epistle, full of interesting details as to the 'movement', but a mere blank in regard to that dear little sufferer.[2]

In consequence of uninterrupted reading and writing, an inflammation of my right eye has set in since a few days, so that it forsakes service for the moment and obliges me to limit even this letter to the most necessary matter-of-fact communications.

In the first instance, Keller is not the translator of my book.[3]

When, at last, I had found out his whereabouts, I wrote at once.[4]

In his reply, he told me that he had till then only translated about 200 pages, and that, moreover, he could not proceed with the work before the month of May, being bound by contract to finish the translation of a medical work. This would not do for me. I have found in Roy, the translator of Feuerbach, a man perfectly suitable to my purpose. Since the end of December, he has received from me the corrected manuscript of the Second German edition[5] up to pagina 280. To-day I have written him to send at once to Paris what manuscript may be ready.[6]

As to the biography, I have not yet made up my mind as to whether it be at all opportune to publish it in connection with this work.[7]

As to the preface for Proudhon,[8] j'y penserait[9]

The printings Paul wants I shall send to-morrow[10] and should have done so before, if I had found the time to look after some statistical facts in 'the 18. Brumaire' which, I apprehend, are not quite correct.

To Liebknecht I shall write.[11]

As to Lara, making him—a man who is a perfect stranger to our party—a contributor to our party prints, is quite out of the question.[12] At the same time, you ought not to neglect all relations with his family. Under certain circumstances they might prove useful.

I regret that you have written to Woodhull et C°. They are humbugs that compromise us. Let Paul write to Charles A. Dana, editor of The Sun (New York) and offer him Spanish correspondence, and ask him at the same time (such things must be settled beforehand with the Yankees) as to the money terms. I enclose a few lines to Dana.[13] If he should not accept, I shall find another paper at New York. (The Herald or something else).

The New Social Demokrat is the continuation of Schweitzer's paper[14] under another editorship. He observed still a certain decorum. It is now a mere police paper, Bismarck's paper for the Lassalleans, as he has his feudal, his liberal, his all sort of colour papers.

Apropos. Misled by one of your letters I had put in the contract with Lachâtre[15] 'somme de... sera remise à Paris... quinze jours après demande}[16] I shall write him to-morrow, that I prefer the payment on 1st July. In case of need, I can find the money, but I must be informed beforehand.

And now, my dear child, adio, with thousand kisses for little Schnappy and yourself, and my greetings to Paul.

Yours most devotedly

Old Nick[17]

The 'Circular' against the dissentients'[18] you will receive as soon as printed.

  1. ↑ Charles Etienne Lafargue
  2. ↑ Marx is apparently referring to Lafargue's letter to him written between 17 and 24 February 1872.
  3. ↑ Volume I of Capital
  4. ↑ This letter by Marx has not been found.
  5. ↑ A reference to the 'Circulaire à toutes les fédérations de l'Association Internationale des Travailleurs' adopted at Sonvillier on 12 November 1871 (see Note 374). It was printed in La Emancipacion, the organ of the Spanish Federal Council, on 25 December 1871.
  6. ↑ This letter by Marx has not been found.
  7. ↑ Maurice Lachâtre, the publisher of Volume I of Capital in French, intended to include a biography of Marx. Passing on Lachâtre's wish in a letter of 12 December 1871, Laura Lafargue also wrote that Paul Lafargue would undertake to write the biography. Lachâtre subsequently approached Engels with this proposal (see this volume, pp. 478-79).
  8. ↑ On 7 January 1872 Lafargue wrote to Engels that since Proudhonist ideas held considerable sway with Spanish workers he had arranged with José Mesa to have Marx's The Poverty of Philosophy translated into Spanish, and passed on Mesa's request that a special foreword be written for the Spanish edition. However, the translation was not completed, and the foreword was not written. Several excerpts translated into Spanish were carried by La Emancipaciôn.
  9. ↑ I shall think of it.
  10. ↑ This letter by Marx has not been found.
  11. ↑ A reference to Lafargue's repeated requests for assistance in establishing ongoing contacts between La Emancipaciôn and Der Volksstaat edited by Wilhelm Liebknecht. We do not know whether Marx wrote to Liebknecht as he had promised Lafargue.
  12. ↑ In his letters to Marx written in February 1872 Lafargue proposed to get Lopez de Lara, a Spanish businessman residing in London, to finance publication of the International's official documents.
  13. ↑ This letter by Marx has not been found.
  14. ↑ Der Social Demokrat
  15. ↑ The surviving manuscript copy of the letter does not bear the name of the addressee. However, its contents and Marx's correspondence on the subject indicate that it was addressed to the heads of the Lachâtre publishing house in Paris. On 13 February 1872 Marx received a reply from the manager Juste Vernouillet, who informed him about the despatch of copies of the agreement on the publication of the French translation of Volume I of Capital. The agreement was signed on 15 February by Marx on one side, and Maurice Lachâtre and Juste Vernouillet on the other. It stipulated that the French edition was to be published in 44 instalments, and sold five instalments at a time.
    The French authorised edition of Volume I of Capital was published between 17 September 1872 and November 1875. The translation was done by Joseph Roy, who began in February 1872 and completed work in late 1873. The quality of the translation largely failed to satisfy Marx; besides, he was convinced that the original needed to be revised to adapt it to French readers.
  16. ↑ 'the sum of... shall be paid in Paris... within 15 days upon demand'
  17. ↑ Marx's nickname
  18. ↑ K. Marx and F. Engels, Fictitious Splits in the International