Letter to Hermann Schluter, July 28, 1884

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 28 July 1884


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


ENGELS TO HERMANN SCHLÜTER

IN HOTTINGEN-ZURICH

[London,] 28 July 1884

Dear Mr Schlüter,

Proofs[1] returned herewith.
Shall continue to return
them promptly. But I would ask you to be rather more indulgent with my spelling; I have no cause in my advancing years to let myself be either civilised or centralised, let alone cited. Supposedly 'consistent' spelling is usually far less consistent and far less historical than the good old casualness.

I am in full agreement with your suggestions. However these are things you know more about than I do.

I would now ask you to be good enough to let me have the final proofs and, when the book is ready, 25 copies of the deluxe edition and 5 of the other; I shall not be able to manage with less.[2]

To save postage, the ms. can be sent with the proofs in a stiff, strong wrapper; over here mss. and proofs are both charged as book post. They must, however, carry the full amount of stamps, otherwise they won't arrive here.

Yours faithfully,

F. Engels

  1. ↑ F. Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. At that time zivilisieren, zentralisieren and zitieren were customarily spelt with a 'c'. In this letter Engels spells them with a 'z'.
  2. ↑ Following prolonged and unsuccessful talks with the publisher Dietz on printing Engels' work The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State in Stuttgart, Karl Kautsky wrote to Engels on 16 July 1884 that this work could be issued by the Social Democratic publishing house Die Volksbuchhandlung in Hottingen-Zurich where Hermann Schlüter was a member of staff. Of the total edition of 5,000 copies, 1,000 would be passed on to the publisher Jakob Schabelitz for distribution in Germany.