Letter to Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis, April 11, 1883

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 11 April 1883


First published, in Russian, in Istorik-marksist, No. 6, Moscow, 1934
Printed according to the original
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 47


ENGELS TO FERDINAND DOMELA NIEUWENHUIS

IN THE HAGUE

London, 11 April 1883

122 Regent's Park Road, N.W.

Dear Comrade,

You must understand that, since the death of my old friend, I have been so taken up with correspondence, business matters, the perusal of his writings, etc., that I have been able to attend only to what was absolutely imperative. Today I have at last found a minute or two in which to thank you for your letter of condolence and for your excellent obituary in Recht voor Allen.[1] That obituary was undoubtedly one of the best we have seen, and was unanimously acclaimed as such among our circle of intimates here.

Many thanks, too, on behalf of his surviving daughters[2] and of myself, to the Dutch workers' party for their participation, at least in spirit, in our friend's last rites. In this they were at one with our German, French, Spanish, Russian and American comrades.

Should fate or the urge to travel — in our case sadly curbed — bring me to Holland, I shall consider myself under an obligation to look you up, just as I would urge you to look me up should you come to England.

Marx has left a great wad of manuscript for the second part of Capital, the whole of which I must first read (and what handwriting!) before I can tell to what extent it is printable and to what extent it requires complementing from subsequent notebooks. At all events, the main substance is there. Since I cannot as yet say anything more definite, however, I would ask you not to put anything in the papers about it just now, as this might lead to misunderstandings. Besides, Marx's youngest daughter Eleanor is my literary co-executrix, I can do nothing without her and the ladies, as you know, are sticklers for form.

Excuse me dat ik niet op hollandsch schrijf[3] ; in recent years I have had no practice in the use of your language.

Very sincerely yours,

F. Engels

I enclose my photograph and beg you to send me yours. As soon as we have got new ones of Marx I shall send you one.

  1. ↑ F. D. Nieuwenhuis, 'Karl Marx', Recht voor Allen, No. 4, 24 March 1883.
  2. ↑ Laura Lafargue and Eleanor Marx
  3. ↑ for not writing in Dutch