Letter to Ludwig and Gertrud Kugelmann, June 27, 1872

Author(s) Jenny Marx Longuet
Written 27 June 1872


First published, in Italian, in Movimento operaio, No. 2, Milan, 1955
First published in English in Archiv für Sozialgeschichte, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Publishers, Vol. II, [Hanover] 1962.
Reproduced in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44

To Ludwig and Gertrud Kugelmann in Hanover

[London,] 27 June 1872

My dear friends,

If you knew how often I have sat down to write to you, and how often I have been interrupted before I had written half a dozen lines, I am sure you would forgive me for not having answered your last letter before this.

You, my dear Doctor, will be glad to hear that Mohr is entirely of your opinion with regard to his activity in the International. He is convinced that so long as he remains in the General Council, it will be impossible for him to write the second volume of Das Kapital, at which he has been unable to work during the last year. Consequently, he has made up his mind to give up his post as secretary immediately after the next Congress. Until that time however, he will have to work terribly hard in the Council and out of it, in order to prepare for the great battle that will be fought out at the Congress, which is to take place in Holland.[1]

You will have some idea of this work when I tell you that besides writing manifestoes, reading or answering mountains of letters, Mohr is obliged to attend not only the usual weekly sittings at Rathbone Place, but additional ones at our house and that of Engels,[2] the last of which lasted from four in the afternoon until one o'clock in the morning. So much for International business.

The remaining time (and there is not much of it) is given up to the correction of the proof-sheets[3] from Meissner, and the revision of the French translation,[4] which unfortunately is so very imperfect, that Mohr has been obliged to re-write the greater part of the first chapter. The first livraison[5] consisting only of the portrait of the author, after the enclosed photograph by Mayall—an autograph letter[6] and answer from the publisher Lachâtre, will shortly appear, in about a week.—Of the Russian translation, which is excellent, a thousand copies have already been sold, and the second edition is being printed. The French translation of the Civil War is producing a very good effect upon the refugees, equally satisfying all parties—Blanquists, Proudhoniens, and Communists. It is a great pity it did not appear earlier,[7] as it would undoubtedly have done much towards smoothing down the animosity against the General Council.—

And now, my dearest Trautchen,[8] let me also give you some news. In all probability the marriage so often announced by the presse policière de Paris will take place somewhere about the middle of July—the 18th or 19th. Last week the Gaulois married me for the 20th time. It selected the notorious Landeck as my husband.[9] When I am married in good earnest I suppose those idiotic scribblers will let me alone.

I cannot send you M. Longuet's photograph, my dear friends, as I only have a very horrible one, that is being exposed in the shop windows, a caricature made to please the bourgeoisie, and to satisfy them that physically as well as morally the Communeux are the monsters for which they took them. So soon as I have a better likeness I will send it [to] you. What do you think of the enclosed one of Papa? We all greatly admire it and think it superior to the one he had taken at Hanover.—

With best love from all at home to yourselves and Käuzchen[10]

Believe me as ever

your affectionate friend

Jenny Marx

  1. ↑ The Fifth Congress of the International Working Men's Association was held on 2-7 September 1872 in The Hague and attended by 65 delegates from 15 national organisations. Its decision to include in the General Rules (as Article 7a) the major tenet on the conquest of political power by the proletariat, and its resolutions relating to Administrative Regulations signified a victory for Marxism. The Congress took stock of the struggle Marx, Engels and their followers had waged for years against petty-bourgeois sectarianism in the workers' movement, in whatever guise it appeared, most notably against Bakuninism; Mikhail Bakunin and James Guillaume, the anarchist leaders, were expelled from the International. The resolutions of the Hague Congress laid the groundwork for the future formation of independent political parties of the working class on a national level.
  2. ↑ A reference to the meetings of the General Council Executive Committee (see Note 435). The Committee meetings usually took place at Marx's or Engels' homes.
  3. ↑ of the second German edition of Volume I of Capital
  4. ↑ The surviving manuscript copy of the letter does not bear the name of the addressee. However, its contents and Marx's correspondence on the subject indicate that it was addressed to the heads of the Lachâtre publishing house in Paris. On 13 February 1872 Marx received a reply from the manager Juste Vernouillet, who informed him about the despatch of copies of the agree ment on the publication of the French translation of Volume I of Capital. The agreement was signed on 15 February by Marx on one side, and Maurice Lachâtre and Juste Vernouillet on the other. It stipulated that the French edi tion was to be published in 44 instalments, and sold five instalments at a time. The French authorised edition of Volume I of Capital was published between 17 September 1872 and November 1875. The translation was done by Joseph Roy, who began in February 1872 and completed work in late 1873. The quality of the translation largely failed to satisfy Marx; besides, he was convinced that the original needed to be revised to adapt it to French readers.
  5. ↑ instalment
  6. ↑ See this volume, p. 347.
  7. ↑ The Civil War in France was published in French for the first time in L'Internationale in Brussels in July-September 1871 and in L'Égalité in Geneva in August-October 1871. It appeared between separate covers in Brussels in June 1872. In Spain Marx's work was published in La Emancipación in July-September 1871. The publication of the Italian edition, started in L'Ègguaglianza (Girgenti) in November-December 1871, was not completed. The Dutch edition appeared in De Toekomst in June-July 1871. On the German translation of The Civil War in France see Note 226.
  8. ↑ Gertrud Kugelmann
  9. ↑ Le Gaulois, 18 June 1872.
  10. ↑ Franziska Kugelmann