Letter to Karl Marx, December 19, 1859

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 19 December 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[1]

IN LONDON

Manchester, [19 December 1859] 7 Southgate

Dear Moor,

I slaved away all day so as to have the afternoon free for the article and, when I came to light the gas, it burnt so low that the whole office had to stop work. At home it's been worse if anything for almost a week now; the prolonged spell of frost and fog has so increased the consumption of gas during the day that by the evening there's no pressure at all and hence no light. This makes it impossible for me to do the article today, and anyhow it may well gain by my having to wait until the day after tomorrow or Thursday, since the move from Ceuta against Tetuan should begin any day now.[2] Admittedly, this will be pretty awful for you, since it means you'll have to slave away tomorrow when you had been counting on me.

Siebel has been to Hamburg, where he was told by the literary Bohemians that 'Freiligrath has broken with Marx'. So you can see how Mr Kinkel is still carrying on the business of article-writing, self-advertising tittle-tattle even now that Mockel[3] is dead. Mr Strodtmann, presently on the Hamburg Freischütz, has apparently reverted to being a faithful disciple of Johann Gottfried.[4]

My eyes are aching so I'll stop. Warm regards to your wife and children. I can't come at Christmas. G. Ermen has again been making changes at the office and this makes it impossible for me to go away, especially at the year's end, without incurring very great RESPONSIBILITY. I shall come for certain at Easter or Whitsun.

Your

F. E.

  1. ↑ The letter is not dated, but since Marx answered it on 20 December 1859, it may be assumed that it was written the day before. This is confirmed by Engels' mentioning that he had been unable to write the article on Morocco for the day when material was usually despatched from London to New York, in this case Tuesday, 20 December. The last day when an article due to get to London from Manchester by December 20 ought to have been written was December 19, and that was the day when Engels wrote this letter.—553
  2. ↑ Engels refers to the events of the Spanish-Moroccan war of 1859-60 (see Note 490). His next article on the subject published in the New-York Daily Tribune—'The Moorish War'—was written in mid-January 1860 (see present edition, Vol. 16).—553
  3. ↑ Johanna Kinkel
  4. ↑ Gottfried Kinkel. Engels ironically calls him Johann after his wife, Johanna Kinkel.