Letter to Peter Imandt, September 27, 1875

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 27 September 1875


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, Second Russian Edition, Vol. 34, Moscow, 1964
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 45


MARX TO PETER IMANDT

IN DUNDEE

London, 27 September 1875 41 Maitland Park Road, N. W.

Dear Imandt,

I was very glad to hear from you again at last. I have only just arrived back from taking the cure at Karlsbad.[1] It has done me a great deal of good and is also the reason why I didn't know about the article that was sent to me.[2] I imagine it originates from Barry, a very fanatical Scottish party member. The article in Fraser's (to which Eccarius, Hales, Mottershead, Jung contributed their share—chaps now in very low water) stems from a deplorable novelist, Mrs Betham- Edwards[3] who relates, e.g., that my anti-Proudhon piece[4] is a short chapter in Capital.

Printing of the French edition of the latter (the last three FASCICLES in particular heavily revised by me) has been constantly disrupted by the French government. The last three instalments, which were set more than six months ago, are finally to be allowed to leave the press. I shall send them to you on receipt of the same.

Kaub and Dr C. Hirsch, who have come over from Paris for a few days, tell me that things are going ill with our old friend Schily (he is still living at 4 rue St Quentin); to begin with, there had been trouble for years between him and his better half, health ruined, lost most of his German clients through their having to leave Paris after the catastrophe,[5] has grown morose, francophobe and somewhat conservative. He could probably do well for himself in Strasbourg, but is rightly too proud to petition the Prussians.

In Germany I found much disenchantment, even among the philistines, following the sorry outcome of the milliards windfall.[6]

The whole family send their warmest regards. Drop us a line again soon.

Salut.

Your

K. M.

  1. ↑ Between 15 August and 11 September 1875, Marx was in Karlsbad for a second time taking treatment. On his way there, he stopped over in Frankfurt am Main (see Note 109). On his way back to London, he spent several days in Prague visiting Max Oppenheim.
  2. ↑ In a letter to Marx of 25 September 1875, Peter Imandt enclosed an article, 'The International Working Men's Association. By an Internationalist', carried by The Dundee Advertiser on that day. 'The enclosure will show you that The Dundee Advertiser has a very good friend of yours among its correspondents. I was surprised to see the article this morning, and have no idea where it originates,' he wrote.
  3. ↑ See this volume, pp. 79 81.
  4. ↑ K. Marx, The Poverty of Philosophy.
  5. ↑ i.e. of the Franco Prussian War that began in 1870
  6. ↑ Under the terms of the peace treaty signed after its defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71, France paid 5,000-million-franc reparations to Germany, which contributed to the rapid growth of German economy. The period of feverish business activity, which witnessed the mushrooming of railway, industrial, construction and commercial joint-stock companies, banks and credit and social security companies and was accompanied by large-scale speculation, stock-exchange swindles and machinations, has come to be known as Gründerjahre (or the period of Criindertum). By 1873 it had resulted in a crash followed by an economic crisis, which lasted well into 1877.