Letter to Friedrich Engels, December 12, 1860

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 12 December 1860


Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 41


MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

London, 12 December [1860]

Dear Engels,

BEST THANKS FOR ARTICLE.[1] The item in the Neue Preussische Zeitung (if one disregards their own comments) is no more than a paragraph that appeared in the Londoner Lithographierte Korrespondenz (Schlesinger); with few exceptions, it was in all the German papers, for the most part under the heading 'London'.

The shorter version of the advertisement was confined to papers published in England. In the German papers, the table of contents was included.[2]

I am sending you herewith the advertisement in the Buch- händlerbörsenblatt,' composed by Petsch himself. The well-known 'politician' he speaks of at the end is magnus'[3] L. Bücher, who indicated as much when talking to Borkheim.

The advertisements in the German papers probably appeared in the course of this week. A little after the book's arrival, it being undesirable (in view of the Lawsuit') to alert the Prussians.

Advertisements have been sent to the: Allgemeine Zeitung; Br e si au er Zeitung; Bund (Berne); Deutsche Allgemeine'^; Frankfurter Journal; Hamburger Nachrichten; Freischütz; Reform; Karlsruher Zeitung; Kölnische Zeitung; Königsberger Härtung"; Mannheimer Journal; National-Zeitung; Neue Preussische Zeitung; Publicist; Berlin Volks-Zeitung; Ost-Deutsche Post; Presse; Rostocker Zeitung; Schwäbischer Merkur; Trier'sche Zeitung; Zeitung für Norddeutschland; Zürcher Neue Zeitung'1; Neue Süddeutsche^ (Munich); Morgenblatt; Wochenblatt des Nationalvereins"; Deutsches Museum; Illustrirte Zeitung; Ausland (Augsburg); Historische Deutsche Monatsschrift (Brunswick).

New-Yorker Staatszeitung; New-Yorker Criminal-Zeitung; New-Yorker Abendzeitung. Times; Athenaeum; Critic; Saturday Review; Illustrated News; Manchester Guardian; Hermann.

Copies sent inter alia to Cotta, the Reform, Duncker, 6 to Siebel; various to the English papers (Sat. Review, Athenaeum, Critic, III. News); Lommel, Brass, Fischel. Over 50 free copies despatched in all, but only a few of them to newspapers.

41 sold in London to date.

Nota bene: Lommel's Hinter den Coulissen is now in great demand in Germany. There have even been orders from Riga.

Bücher (who contributes articles to the supplement of the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung, e. g., the one on Persigny and Palmerston) has promised Borkheim he will write a review for the A. Z. I fear Biscamp may forestall him.

Liebknecht has placed advertisements and lengthy excerpts in 4 German-American and 4 English-American papers. He is now, I might add, literary correspondent to the last-named.

'Mr Vogt' writes signed articles for some of the more obscure American-German papers. Rails at 'Bonaparte'.[4] Declared that my pamphlet would never come out.

My wife is much better. But the children probably won't be allowed home for another fortnight. I myself have to spend almost all day with her and am feeling far from well. However, that will resolve itself as soon as she is in a more normal state of health.

A week ago, Allen cancelled the prescription for claret and prescribed port instead. I should be grateful, therefore, if you would send me a few bottles of the latter.

My library has arrived.[5] Still at the CUSTOM HOUSE, for the 'COMMISSIONERS' have not yet decided whether I am to have it DUTY FREE.

Now, just guess how I got to the bottom of Ludwig Simon's secret. (See appendix 16c.[6] ) Regards to Lupus.

Your

K. M.

  1. ↑ This article, as well as the one Marx received on 12 December, was written by Engels at Marx's request (see this volume, pp. 220 and 222). It is not known whether the New-York Daily Tribune published it.
  2. ↑ Here and further in the text the reference is to advertisements announcing the publication of Marx's Herr Vogt.
  3. ↑ Wochenschrift des Nationalvereins
  4. ↑ K. Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte.
  5. ↑ This refers to Marx's private library which he had collected in the 1840s and left in the safekeeping of his friend, Communist League member Roland Daniels, in Cologne in May 1849, when expelled by the Prussian authorities. Shortly before being arrested in 1851, Daniels hid the books in the warehouse of his brother, a wine merchant. Acquitted at the Cologne Communist trial in late 1852, he came out of prison a gravely sick man. He died of tuberculosis in August 1855. At the beginning of 1856 Daniels' widow took steps to send the books to Marx, but owing to the high transportation costs and other problems, it was not until December 1860 that he received his library, with some books missing. A list of the books of this library, compiled by Daniels and with notes by Marx, has been preserved.
  6. ↑ See K. Marx's Herr Vogt, present edition, Vol. 17, pp. 328 29, and this volume, pp. 234 35.