Letter to Florence Kelley, March 12, 1886

Author(s)	Friedrich Engels
Written	12 March 1886

First published abridged, in the language of the original (English), in Briefe und Auszüge aus Briefen von Joh. Phil. Becker, Jos. Dietzgen, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx u.A. an F.A. Sorge und Andere, Stuttgart, 1906 and in full in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVII, Moscow, 1935
Reproduced from the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 47

ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY-WISCHNEWETZKY

IN ZURICH

London, 12 March 1886

Dear Mrs Wischnewetzky,

Deep buried as I am in the English Capital,^[1] I have only the time to write a few lines in haste. It did not require all your exposition of the circumstances to convince me that you were perfectly innocent of what had been done in America with your translation.^[2] The thing is done and can't be helped, though we both are convinced that it was a mistake.⁰

I thank you for pointing out to me a passage in the appendix which indeed is far from clear. The gradation from the Polish Jew to the Hamburger, and from the Hamburger again to the Manchester merchant does not at all come out to the front. So I have tried to alter it in a way which may meet both your and my own objection to it and hope I have succeeded.

And now I cannot conclude without expressing to you my most sincere thanks to you for the very great trouble you have taken to revive, in English, a book of mine which is half-forgotten in the original German.

Ever at your service as far as my time and powers allow, believe me, dear Mrs Wischnewetzky

Yours very faithfully,

F. Engels

The dedication to the English working men should be left out.^[3]

It has no meaning to-day.

↑ The idea of translating Capital into English occurred to Marx as early as 1865, when he was working on the manuscript (see Marx's letter to Engels of 31 July 1865, present edition, Vol. 42). The British journalist and member of the International's General Council, Peter Fox, was to help Marx find a publisher. However, this matter was not settled due to Fox's death in 1869. The English translation of the first volume of Capital, edited by Engels, did not appear until after Marx's death, in January 1887, and was published by Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey & Co., London. The translation was done by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling between mid-1883 and March 1886. Eleanor Marx-Aveling took part in the preparatory work for the edition (see also this volume, pp. 33 and 127-28).
↑ In his letter of 17 March 1883, Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis, on behalf of the Dutch Socialist Workers' Party, asked Engels to 'pass on our homage and grateful acknowledgement, to the Marx family and to all those who join us in mourning at the grave of the master'. Nieuwenhuis also informed Engels that he planned to translate his work Socialism: Utopian and Scientific into Dutch, which he actually did in 1886. Nieuwenhuis further enquired about Engels' plan with regard to Volume II of Marx's Capital, further study of the English labour movement after 1845 and the reissue of Engels' The Condition of the Working-Class in England.
↑ The reference is to Engels' preface to the first edition of his work The Condition of the Working-Class in England (see present edition, Vol. 4, pp. 302-04) and his dedication of this book 'to the Working-Classes of Great-Britain' (ibid., pp. 297-301). The preface and dedication were not included in the edition of this work which appeared in the United States (see Note 349).

[1] The idea of translating Capital into English occurred to Marx as early as 1865, when he was working on the manuscript (see Marx's letter to Engels of 31 July 1865, present edition, Vol. 42). The British journalist and member of the International's General Council, Peter Fox, was to help Marx find a publisher. However, this matter was not settled due to Fox's death in 1869. The English translation of the first volume of Capital, edited by Engels, did not appear until after Marx's death, in January 1887, and was published by Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey & Co., London. The translation was done by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling between mid-1883 and March 1886. Eleanor Marx-Aveling took part in the preparatory work for the edition (see also this volume, pp. 33 and 127-28).

[2] In his letter of 17 March 1883, Ferdinand Domela Nieuwenhuis, on behalf of the Dutch Socialist Workers' Party, asked Engels to 'pass on our homage and grateful acknowledgement, to the Marx family and to all those who join us in mourning at the grave of the master'. Nieuwenhuis also informed Engels that he planned to translate his work Socialism: Utopian and Scientific into Dutch, which he actually did in 1886. Nieuwenhuis further enquired about Engels' plan with regard to Volume II of Marx's Capital, further study of the English labour movement after 1845 and the reissue of Engels' The Condition of the Working-Class in England.

[3] The reference is to Engels' preface to the first edition of his work The Condition of the Working-Class in England (see present edition, Vol. 4, pp. 302-04) and his dedication of this book 'to the Working-Classes of Great-Britain' (ibid., pp. 297-301). The preface and dedication were not included in the edition of this work which appeared in the United States (see Note 349).

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