Letter to Laura Lafargue, March 10, 1887

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 10 March 1887


First published, in the language of the original (English), in F. Engels, P. et L. Lafargue, Correspondance, II, Paris, 1956
Published in English in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48


ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE[1]

IN PARIS

London, 10 March 1887

My dear Laura,

Pleasant news. The first edition of Capital[2] 500 copies, is sold with the exception of about 50 copies and the 2nd edition is in preparation. Nearly half the edition, as far as I can calculate, has gone to America[3] and the 2nd edition will still find a good market there unless a piratical edition is brought out which however will not probably be undertaken before the success of the book in America is manifest and moreover it will take some time. As the clichés are there, the 2nd edition will soon be in the market, and on that we shall have 3/9 in every copy instead of 3/- as on the first. It will again be a 30/- edition.[4]

We saw the article in the Athenaeum[5] and Tussy will send you a copy. It is very fortunate that the press begins to speak of the book just as the 1st edition is sold out, and the Athenaeum article is worth a good deal to us. The gentlemen of the press evidently did not know exactly how to speak of the book, hence the delay, but now the Athenaeum has given them the key-note, the others are sure to follow suit.

Between the above and what follows lies a long-winded visit from old Jakins the house agent who took the rent and payment for coals and two glasses of gin and a cigar—a repeated ringing of the dinner-bell to drive the old fellow away—successful at the third repetition—then a rather heavy dinner with Nim's potato-cakes as a wind-up, and so I am wound up, but not for letter-writing. I think you will not be sorry if under these circumstances I make no further attempt, but proceed at once to subscribe myself.

Yours affectionately

F. Engels

  1. ↑ This letter was first published, in the language of the original (English), in F. Engels, P. et L. Lafargue, Correspondance, t. 2 (1887-1890), Paris, Ed. sociales, 1956.
  2. ↑ the English edition of Vol. I
  3. ↑ See previous letter
  4. ↑ The third, cheap English edition (10s 6d) of Volume I of Capital appeared in London in 1888. Copies of the first two editions (both 1887) were sold at 30s.
  5. ↑ An unsigned review of the English edition of Volume I of Capital appeared in the London literary and critical journal Athenaeum, No. 3097, 5 March 1887.