Letter to Wilhelm Liebknecht, December 18, 1890

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 18 December 1890


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVIII, Moscow, 1940
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 49


ENGELS TO WILHELM LIEBKNECHT

IN BERLIN

London, 18 December 1890

Dear Liebknecht,

You guessed the names aright.

I fail to see what point there would be in publishing this muddled correspondence, the Hegelian language of which would today be incomprehensible.[1] Either you intend to publish everything bearing Marx's name or — might this be the beginning of the Collected Works in pamphlet and/or serial form planned by you and Paul Ernst?

Against this I would protest here and now as, indeed, I shall continue to do.

I would gladly agree to the publication in pamphlet form of such individual pieces by Marx as are comprehensible today without notes or a commentary, but to their publication only, without notes or a commentary of any description. Should the plan you propose here be put into effect, however, I shall intervene forthwith.

I cannot write a preface. The most I could say about the correspondence is that Marx told me more than once that his part of it had been tinkered with by Ruge who had inserted all manner of nonsense.

If only you people would leave off pestering me so that I had time to finish the 3rd volume[2] I could myself do something worthwhile along those lines. I have already told you that the time is past when I can do work to order for you. I shall take on absolutely nothing further, even though it may amount to no more than 3 lines, until I have dealt with the mountain of stuff I have already undertaken to do.

When a chap can only write by daylight and, what's more, at most 3, and quite often only 2, hours a day and with constant interruptions into the bargain, you will understand that every superfluous letter robs him of his most precious time. Besides which, there has been virtually no daylight for the past 12 days.

So will you at long last be kind enough to let me work in peace? Despite a lengthy search I cannot immediately put my finger on the passage in Sybel.[3] It is so cunningly concealed that leafing through the book is no good. However, it would do you no harm, in view of your preoccupation with Bismarck, to go through this important source yourself, in which case you would yourself find the passage in the 4th or 5th volume.[4]

Kindest regards from my household to yours, and a happy holiday to you.

Your

F. E.

Today I have had another reminder from Dietz about the new edition of the Origin.[5] [6] How can I possibly manage if I don't get a moment's peace?

  1. ↑ Wilhelm Liebknecht intended to reprint — under the title 'Ein Briefwechsel von 1843' — Marx's correspondence with Arnold Ruge published in the Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher in Paris in 1844 (see present edition, Vol. 3, pp. 133-45).
  2. ↑ of Capital
  3. ↑ H. von Sybel, Die Begründung des Deutschen Reiches durch Wilhelm I, vols I-V.
  4. ↑ Wilhelm Liebknecht quotes from Vol. 4 of Heinrich von Sybel's Die Begründung des deutschen Reiches durch Wilhelm I, pp. 411-14, where Sybel suggests that Bismarck might be willing to compensate France territorially — a willingness expressed in his pamphlet Die Emser Depesche oder: Wie Kriege gemacht werden.
  5. ↑ F. Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State.
  6. ↑ See this volume, p. 74.