MARX TO HUGO HELLER[1]
[IN OXFORD]
[Extract]
[London,] 29 January 1879
Dear Friend,
... You would oblige me by copying for me verbatim the passage in Busch [OR Buret?][2] in which I am taxed with the bad taste of having preserved the life of the Champagne phiz...[3]
- ↑ This extract was first published, in German, in the catalogue Sotheby Parke Bernet and C, London, 1963, as item No. 247. The letter was said to take up half a page and was rendered in English, up to the passage published in this volume, as follows: Marx 'informing his correspondent that he sent off three copies of Das Kapital and received payment for them'. The letter was purchased by an agent of the Maggs Brothers auctioneers; its subsequent fate is unknown.
- ↑ The words in square brackets were added by the compiler of the catalogue
- ↑ Marx is replying TO HUGO HELLER's letter of 9 January 1879, which stated that in his work Graf Bismarck und seine Leute während des Krieges mit Frankreich (Bd. II, Leipzig, 1878, S. 159) 'court flatterer' Moritz Busch represented Marx as preserver of the late King's life (probably Frederick William IV). Hugo Heller added that 'Champagne was still the King's undoing'.
In his next letter, that of 10 February 1879, Heller apologised to Marx for misinterpreting this passage in Busch's book; in actual fact, the reference was not to Marx but to Mr Wiehr. Later, Heller copied out the pertinent passage and sent it on to Marx.