Letter to Karl Kautsky, October 15, 1884

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 15 October 1884


First published in Russian in Marx-Engels Archives, Vol. I (VI), Moscow, 1932
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 47


ENGELS TO KARL KAUTSKY

IN ZURICH

London, 15 October[1] 1884

Dear Kautsky,

You will have got my postcard.[2] If possible I shall set to work on the preface[3] tomorrow; there are interruptions every day; today, for example, the whole of my time will be spent on correspondence and I'm still not allowed to sit for too long at my desk. Once I settle down to it I shall be done in a day or two.

So Geiser is the inventor of this marvellous spelling! Another feather in his cap. I must confess that my aversion to this procrustean bed was to some extent responsible for my failing to get a move on with contributions to the Neue Zeit. But do tell me whether this splendid system was obligatory in the case of other books published by Dietz—in that of Bebel's Frau[4] it was not; it is important that I should know this in the event of my replying to Dietz.

Having protested to Dietz 39 about Geiserianism so categorically, I cannot now submit to it in the Neue Zeit—nor yet where the printing of the preface is concerned. Elsewhere I have no objections, of course.

For Ede: Wehner writes to say that the person did not demand the money on behalf of our people, he having sent it of his own free will; however the said person says that they had accepted it. This amounts to the same thing.

I have not read Rodbertus' Creditnoth[5] either; however it can only contain what we know already, namely that mortgages are not redeemable, not repayable in capital, but merely intended to establish a claim to 'rent', i.e. regular payments of interest; if these payments are not forthcoming, an order may be made for the sale of the property; the mortgagee has no further claim. This is Rodbertus' 'principle of rent', intended to enable the Junkers to produce, bourgeois-fashion, 5,000 talers per annum and expend, aristo-fashion, 10,000 talers and still not ruin themselves. How it's done remains a mystery. I had to laugh when I saw Schramm trying to find something significant in it.[6]

Marx's photograph went off to Manz today.[7] I understand he wants to know about the colour. You will be able to help him there of course. As swarthy as any southern European might be, not much red about the cheeks (when you saw Marx he was already a very sickly yellow; that wasn't normal), moustache jet black, streaked with white but without a trace of brown; save for grizzled hairs, hair and beard snow white. The picture—a retouched photographic enlargement—is a speaking likeness, and he will get it per the Swiss post office.

Apart from the Polish translation of the Origin, Vera Zasulich has applied to do the Russian and Anderfuhren (from Meiringen), a law student in Berne, the Italian.[8] Do you know anything about this man? Dr Cerioli, his teacher, an Italian and socialist, will go over the translation.

I sent copies[9] to you and Ede yesterday. Over 30 have already gone off to all parts of the world. I have sent it to To-Day and Justice and no doubt you will attend to the other review copies. My sincerest thanks to you and Ede for all the trouble you've taken over the thing.

Your

F. E.

What news of your coming here[10] ? I am speaking not of origo[11] but of adventus.[12]

  1. ↑ August in the original.
  2. ↑ See this volume, pp. 200-01.
  3. ↑ F. Engels, 'Marx and Rodbertus'
  4. ↑ The materials used by the prosecution in the trial of Wilhelm Liebknecht, August Bebel and Adolf Hepner for high treason in Leipzig in March 1872 included the Manifesto of the Communist Party by Marx and Engels. It was carried by the book Leipziger Hochverrathsprozess. Ausführlicher Bericht über die Verhandlungen des Schwurgerichts zu Leipzig in dem Prozeß gegen Liebknecht, Bebel und Hepner wegen Vorbereitung zum Hochverrath vom 11-26. März 1872, Leipzig, 1872, pp. 97-119.
  5. ↑ [J.K.] Rodbertus-Jagetzow, Zur Erklärung und Abhülfe der heutigen Creditnoth des Grundbesitzes.
  6. ↑ [C. A. Schramm], 'K. Kautsky und Rodbertus', Die Neue Zeit, No. 11, 1884.
  7. ↑ See this volume, pp. 191-92.
  8. ↑ The Italian translation of Engels' work The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State was done by Pasquale Martignetti and edited by Engels himself (see this volume, p. 215). The Polish edition appeared in Paris in 1885, and the Russian translation was published in St Petersburg in 1894.
  9. ↑ F. Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.
  10. ↑ The word used is Herkommen which can mean either 'coming here' or 'origins'.
  11. ↑ origins
  12. ↑ arrival