Letter to Horatio Bryan Donkin, February 8, 1886

Author(s) Eleanor Marx-Aveling
Written 8 February 1886


Published in English in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 47


AVELING TO HORATIO BRYAN DONKIN

IN LONDON

[London,] 8 February 1886
35 Great Russell St., W. C.

My dear Dr Donkin,

I have heard of the Club—and I am much obliged to Mr Pearson for asking me to join it.[1] But I cannot — for these reasons. First, I think many members of the Club would decidedly object to my belonging to it. You see, it is a very different matter to advocate certain things, in theory, and to have the courage to put one's theory into practice. Probably, many of the good ladies in the Club would be much shocked at the idea of my becoming a member of it, and I should only be giving Mr Pearson trouble if I accepted his friendly suggestion. But there is also another reason. I have, as it is, hardly a moment of time for real study, a half the work I ought to do I don't do. And apart from this, any time not taken up in trying to earn bread (and it is so difficult for a woman to do like that!) I feel I must give to what seems to me the highest and most important work I could do — i.e. the propaganda of Socialism.

It would not be right to join this Club well knowing that I could not undertake to 'wilt progress' for it, or attend its meetings regularly, or even take such an interest in it as a member ought to take. If, however, mere 'visitors' are admitted, and no one objects to me, I shall be very glad to go to any meeting and take part in any discussion on a question of which I know something.[2] — Please thank Mr Pear-

  1. ↑ The reference is to the Club established by Karl Pearson, an English biologist and philosopher, to encourage free and unbridled discussions on questions connected in some way or another with relations between men and women. Its members were 15-20 intellectuals, among them Horatio Bryan Donkin, a doctor who had treated Marx, and Olive Schreiner, a friend of Eleanor who had written a book entitled Woman and Labour. The discussions centred on Pearson's books The Woman Question and Socialism and Sex. Pearson, who sympathised with the workers' and socialist movement, wished to recruit Engels and Eleanor Marx-Aveling as members of the Club; in the summer of 1885 the latter had published a review of Bebel's book Die Frau und der Sozialismus (see Note 145).
  2. ↑ It is clear from the correspondence between Donkin and Pearson that Eleanor Marx-Aveling intended to visit the Club in April 1886 but never carried out this plan. The Club's minutes contain no record of any contributions made by Engels or Eleanor.