Letter to Karl Marx, May 23, 1859

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 23 May 1859


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXII, Moscow, 1929
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 40


ENGELS TO MARX

IN LONDON

Manchester, 23 May 1859

Dear Moor,

I entirely agree about the manifesto.[1] What ought we to do about printing it? It will probably have to be printed in London; make some inquiries about costs and other PARTICULARS SO that we can launch it immediately it's been written.[2]

The Völkchen[3] business is very amusing, very satisfactory, and may turn out to be extremely useful.[4] As regards its distribution here, the following should be noted: While I could easily find an English 'STATIONER', he would never stand a chance of catching even a STRAY subscriber. To get hold of them we must have recourse to the FOREIGN BOOKSELLERS here, Dunnill and Palmer, Princess Street, and Franz Thimm, Princess Street. Lupus is taking out a subscription with Dunnill and Palmer, Gumpert and I with Thimm, who is our bookseller. The Hermann is very much on the wane here and there is a whole load of back-numbers; Thimm's manager, who doesn't seem overfond of Kinkel, tells me that the

subscribers get fewer every week. So send Thimm a dozen copies of the early numbers, particularly the one dealing with the Kinkel affair,[5] and another half-dozen or so to Dunnill and Palmer; as soon as it appears I shall set that chatterbox Heckscher in motion and he will start the thing circulating here as sure as 2x2=4. But the stuff for Thimm must be sent direct to the Thimm up here; the London chap would be perfectly capable of intercepting the things. Then, as soon as Thimm gets subscriptions here, the local salesmen will perhaps take a greater interest in the matter.

I shall deal with the battle of Casteggio next Friday; the affair is too insignificant to warrant 2 articles and the telegrams are too vague to permit of anything worthwhile being said about it.[6] Your old map of Lombardy has stood me in very good stead, the scale being approx. 1/160,000, hence quite large. Unfortunately the delineation of the ground is very poor.

Many regards,

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ Between January and May 1856 Engels wrote a series of articles on Pan-Slavism for the New-York Daily Tribune, which did not print them. The manuscripts have not been preserved.—5, 14, 51, 68, 73, 81, 100
  2. ↑ No manifesto was issued.—437, 447, 449
  3. ↑ diminutive of Volk
  4. ↑ Das Volk—a German-language weekly published in London from 7 May to 20 August 1859—was founded as the official organ of the German Workers' Educational Society in London. Its first issue appeared under the editorship of the German journalist and petty-bourgeois democrat Elard Biskamp. Beginning with issue No. 2 Marx took an active part in its publication: he offered advice, edited articles, organised material support, and so on. In issue No. 6 of 11 June, the Editorial Board officially named Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Ferdinand Freiligrath, Wilhelm Wolff and Heinrich Heise as its contributors (see present edition, Vol. 16). Marx's first article in the paper—'Spree and Mincio'—was printed on 25 June. Under Marx's influence Das Volk began to turn into a militant revolutionary working-class newspaper. In the beginning of July Marx became its virtual editor and manager. Das Volk carried Marx's preface to his work A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, six of his articles, seven articles by Engels and his review of Marx's A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. Das Volk reflected the elaboration by Marx and Engels of questions concerning the revolutionary theory and tactics of the working-class struggle, described the class struggles of the proletariat, and relendessly fought the exponents of petty-bourgeois ideology. It analysed from the standpoint of proletarian internationalism the events of the Austro-Italo-French war of 1859 and the questions of German and Italian unification, exposed the foreign policy of Britain, Prussia, France, Russia and other states, and consistendy opposed Bonapartism and its overt and covert supporters. In all, sixteen issues appeared. The newspaper ceased publication for lack of money.—438, 447
  5. ↑ See this volume, p. 437.
  6. ↑ The New-York Daily Tribune published two articles by Engels on the battle of Casteggio (or Montebello) fought by the French and Austrians on 20 May 1859: 'Fighting at Last' and 'The Battle of Montebello'. They may have been two instalments of what was originally one article.