Letter to Jenny Marx, August 15, 1860

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 15 August 1860


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 42


ENGELS TO JENNY MARX[1]

IN LONDON

Manchester, 15 August 1860

Dear Mrs Marx,

I shall do the article,[2] tant bien que mal,[3] if I possibly can. Today Siebel has landed me with a young fellow from Barmen, which means I can't do anything; however, I shall probably get down to it tomorrow. By the way, it's irresponsible on Moor's part not even to answer my questions concerning Siebel.[4] For ten days now I've been putting off writing to S., and he might at least let me know what I am to tell the fellow. It's absurd, too, that nothing has yet been done about publishers; heaven knows how long negotiations will eventually take. Then, what with the notoriously dilatory methods of German printers, we'll find that we've arrived, piano ma sano,[5] in the year 1861 and there'll be no one to blame but Mr Moor himself, with his thoroughness and his failure either to do anything about publishers himself, or to put Siebel in a position to do something. Meanwhile, things will be in full swing everywhere in Europe, and the public will have lost all interest in who exactly belonged to the original Brimstone Gang,5 how the pamphlet Zur Warnung came into being, or what is and is not true in Techow's letter.[6] We're forever producing truly splendid things, but take care to see that they never appear on time, and so they are all flops.

An immediate riposte to Vogt three sheets long would, AFTER ALL, have been of far greater value than anything that has since been done. Insist for all you're worth on something being done—and done immediately—about a publisher, and on the pamphlet[7] being finished at long last. Otherwise, we shall wreck all our chances and ultimately find ourselves without any publisher at all.

But now for something comical—a great secret, however, that mustn't go beyond the four walls of No. 9 Grafton Terrace. Just imagine! That ridiculous Siebel, arriving in Barmen, goes and falls head over heels in love with a philistine girl,[8] becomes engaged and intends to marry very shortly and settle down to a life of domesticity in B. What a GREENHORN! He's ashamed to tell me and doesn't know that I know about it; but he's written and told someone else here under the seal of etc., etc. It's going to be a jolly nice marriage indeed if the affair isn't broken off again.

Please give Moor and the YOUNG LADIES my warm regards,

Yours

F. Engels

  1. ↑ This letter was written in reply to the one from Mrs Marx of 14 August 1860 (see this volume, p. 568).
  2. ↑ 'The Sick Man of Austria'
  3. ↑ for better or worse
  4. ↑ Engels' words to the effect that 'it's irresponsible on Moor's part not even to answer my questions concerning Siebel', refer to his letter to Marx of 27 June (see this volume, pp. 168-69) and, presumably, another letter, which has not reached us.
  5. ↑ slowly but surely
  6. ↑ This refers to Techow's letter to Schimmelpfennig of 26 August 1850, in which Techow gave a distorted rendering of a conversation he had had with Marx (see Marx's Herr Vogt, present edition, Vol. 17, pp. 75-99).
  7. ↑ Herr Vogt
  8. ↑ Reinhilde von Hurter