Letter to Richard Fischer, February 2, 1895

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 2 February 1895


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXIX, 1946
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 50


ENGELS TO RICHARD FISCHER

IN BERLIN

London, 2 February 1895
41 Regent's Park Road, N. W.

Dear Fischer,

You and the others have an odd way of holding a pistol to a fellow's head. Having made your plans for Marx's articles, you really might have told me about them a bit sooner rather then at the very last moment. 507 In a case such as this, where I am the administrator of other people's property, I cannot rush things in the same way as I could if the matter simply concerned myself. Added to that, I am at this moment getting Lassalle's letters 284 ready for you and these are far more likely to fall foul of the Subversion Bill 428 than Marx's articles—the latter, then, is the work I ought to put on one side!

So tell me first of all what format and type you are using and how large the edition is to be, also the selling price, for on this occasion I shall, for various reasons, only sell you the right to one edition of a specific size. Meanwhile I shall have a word with Tussy; as soon as I get your reply, I shall let you know for certain.

If you cannot advise me of the exact selling price, it will be sufficient if you say how much you propose to charge per printed sheet.

I assume that you have a copy of the Neue Rheinische Zeitung—Revue from which to reprint. For I myself do not possess one of my own and if I did I couldn't let it out of my hands.

Now for another matter. When the Vorwärts set up its bookselling side, August[1] wrote to say that I would be sent two copies of all your publications. Of late, however, that has been very far from the case. For instance, I have not received your latest edition of the Manifesto, or indeed either of the Berlin editions. 508 I am still short of sundry lesser pieces and am listing those that immediately spring to mind. You would greatly oblige me by sending them to me, namely your reprint of the Subversion Debate in two parts[2] and a couple of copies of the most recent edition of the Communist Manifesto.— As regards the other things I am short of, I have just seen from your list that you are not to blame, since you were not the publisher. Apart from the above I am still short of

Minutes of the Wyden[3] Congress, 1880 343

" " Brussels[4] " 1891 228 and one on Zurich 229 if it was you who published it. 509

The list I used for comparison was issued in 1893 and it is therefore possible that one thing or another may still be missing.

So please let me have the information by return and I shall send you a definite answer as promptly as possible.

Give my kindest regards to your wife and children and all my friends.

Yours

F.E.

  1. ↑ Bebel
  2. ↑ Umsturz und Sozialdemokratie. Verhandlungen des Deutschen Reichstags am 17. Dezember 1894 und 8-12. Januar 1895 nach dem offiziellen stenographischen Bericht.
  3. ↑ Protokoll des Kongresses zu Wyden 1880. Berlin, 1893.
  4. ↑ Verhandlungen und Beschlüsse des Internationalen Arbeiter-Kongresses zu Brüssel (16-22. August 1891). Berlin, 1893