Letter to Bernhard Kraus, September 30, 1875

Author(s)	Karl Marx
Written	30 September 1875

First published in Weg und Ziel, Nr. 5, Wien, Mai 1978
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 45

MARX TO BERNHARD KRAUS

IN VIENNA

London, 30 September 1875

Dear Kraus,

May I most heartily commend to you my friend Leo Frankel, the bearer of these lines and a former member of the Paris Commune. I enclose another photograph, since the first was a poor one. I should be grateful if you could let me have your compendium of the new medical sciences.^[1] You would already have received the French edition of Capital, had not the publication of the last instalments been delayed and obstructed by the French police.^[2] It's bound to appear some day.

With best wishes from myself and daughter Eleanor,

Yours,

Karl Marx

↑ B. Kraus, Compendium der neueren medicinischen Wissenschaften.
↑ A reference to the French edition of the first volume of Capital. An attempt to translate Marx's principal work into French was first made by Charles Keller, a member of the Paris Section of the International. Between October 1869 and April 1870, he translated about 400 pages which he sent to Marx for editing. After the defeat of the Paris Commune, however, Keller was forced to emigrate to Switzerland, where he embraced Bakuninist views, after which Marx terminated co-operation with him. In December 1871, Paul Lafargue assisted Marx in concluding a contract for the publication of Capital with the progressive French journalist and publisher Maurice Lachâtre. The contract was signed on 15 February 1872. Under it, Capital was to appear in 44 instalments, one printer's sheet each. The work appeared between 1872 and 1875 in two instalments at a time, but was sold in series of five instalments each, making nine series in all. The last instalments having come out, the series were stitched together and sold as separate books. The first volume of Capital was translated into French by Joseph Roy. Marx did not think much of the effort and made a vast number of alterations, in fact, revised the book. As he himself said, the authorised French translation had an independent scientific value alongside the German original. In this edition, the first volume of Capital is published in Engels' authorised English translation with the interpolations from the French edition given in the Appendix (see present edition, Vol. 35).

[1] B. Kraus, Compendium der neueren medicinischen Wissenschaften.

[2] A reference to the French edition of the first volume of Capital. An attempt to translate Marx's principal work into French was first made by Charles Keller, a member of the Paris Section of the International. Between October 1869 and April 1870, he translated about 400 pages which he sent to Marx for editing. After the defeat of the Paris Commune, however, Keller was forced to emigrate to Switzerland, where he embraced Bakuninist views, after which Marx terminated co-operation with him. In December 1871, Paul Lafargue assisted Marx in concluding a contract for the publication of Capital with the progressive French journalist and publisher Maurice Lachâtre. The contract was signed on 15 February 1872. Under it, Capital was to appear in 44 instalments, one printer's sheet each. The work appeared between 1872 and 1875 in two instalments at a time, but was sold in series of five instalments each, making nine series in all. The last instalments having come out, the series were stitched together and sold as separate books. The first volume of Capital was translated into French by Joseph Roy. Marx did not think much of the effort and made a vast number of alterations, in fact, revised the book. As he himself said, the authorised French translation had an independent scientific value alongside the German original. In this edition, the first volume of Capital is published in Engels' authorised English translation with the interpolations from the French edition given in the Appendix (see present edition, Vol. 35).

[1]

[2]