Letter to Maurice Lachâtre, after March 21, 1873

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 21 March 1873


First published in Cahiers de l'Institut Maurice Thorez, No. 28, September-October, Paris, 1972. Translated from the French
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


ENGELS TO MAURICE LACHÂTRE[1]

IN SAN SEBASTIAN

[Draft]

[London, after 21 March 1873]

Citizen,

In your letter of 16 March you appear to be under the impression that I am 'presenting you with a book on the communist party', whereas it was you who, by requesting me to write a serious biography of Karl Marx,[2] asked for a history of that party. Marx has led an essentially active life and thus to recount his life would be to write the history of the philosophic and revolutionary movement, both German and international, since '42, in order to trace therein his personal participation and the influence of his writings. If you merely want a reporter's biography, that has already been done. L'Illustration has published one[3] and if you care to send me a copy I shall make the necessary corrections.[4]

Since the study I had in mind was intended to be a serious work, I should have thought I would be doing you an injury by supposing that you who, in this business matter, have assumed the role of capitalist, would have wished to evade the prime social rule, operative even in our bourgeois society, that the capitalist pays the workman in proportion to his labour. However, since you say you are increasing your Capital for the sole purpose of placing it at the service of the Community, I shall consent to donate my labour on condition that you set aside a sum for the foundation of a weekly international organ, of which the socialist party has a pressing need, and of which Marx would be editor.

  1. ↑ The draft of this letter, written in Lafargue's hand, is a reply to Lachâtre's letter of 16 March 1873 and has been dated on the basis of the postmark (21 March) stamped on the day of the latter's arrival in London.
  2. ↑ See this volume, p. 479.
  3. ↑ 'Karl Marx', L'Illustration, No. 1498, 11 November 1871.
  4. ↑ The article 'Karl Marx', together with a portrait of the 'head of the International', was carried by the Paris weekly L'Illustration on 11 November 1871. It consisted of a biographical section, written by one of Marx's associates, and an introduction and conclusion by Eugène Vermersch, a petty-bourgeois journalist, who was largely hostile to Marxism. It is most probable that the biographical section was written by Engels.