Letter to Ludwig Kugelmann, May 4, 1884

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 4 May 1884


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVII, Moscow, 1935
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 47


ENGELS TO LUDWIG KUGELMANN

IN HANOVER

London, 4 May 1884

122 Regent's Park Road, N. W.

Dear Kugelmann,

My health is ALL RIGHT; it was a tedious and inconvenient affair though in no way serious, but to describe it to you would take pages. I received your card and also send my thanks for the Leibnitziad; unfortunately I cannot embark on incidental studies of this kind, as I have my hands full attending to Volume II[1] and revising translations of Marx's things into German,[2] English and French.[3] On top of that there are new editions of two of my works.[4] The 2nd book will probably appear separately, but, having lost so much time during the autumn and winter, I am very behindhand with everything and, as I am being solicited from so many quarters, I have resolved to make no more promises.

Your

F. Engels

  1. ↑ of Capital
  2. ↑ The reference is to the German translation of Marx's The Poverty of Philosophy. Answer to the 'Philosophy of Poverty' by M. Proudhon which was written in French and appeared in Brussels and Paris in 1847. The translation into German was begun by Eduard Bernstein who was later joined by Karl Kautsky. Engels edited the translation, wrote a special preface for it and a number of notes, using the amendments made by Marx on a copy of the French edition of 1847. The book was published by Dietz in Stuttgart in January 1885.
  3. ↑ The reference is to the second French edition of Marx's The Poverty of Philosophy which was being prepared at that time by Laura Lafargue (see also Note 169). The preparatory work on this edition was protracted and it did not appear until 1896 (in Paris), after Engels' death.
  4. ↑ Anti-Dühring and The Peasant War in Germany; see also this volume, pp. 130 and 131.