Letter to Sigmund Schott, November 3, 1877

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 3 November 1877


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXIX, Moscow 1946
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 45


MARX TO SIGMUND SCHOTT

IN FRANKFURT AM MAIN

London, 3 November 1877
41 Maitland Park Road, N. W.

Dear Sir,

My best thanks for the packages. Your offer to arrange for other material to be sent to me from France, Italy, Switzerland, etc. is exceedingly welcome, although I feel reluctant to make undue claims on you. I don't at all mind waiting, by the by, nor will this in any way hold up my work, for I am applying myself to various parts of the book in turn. In fact, privatim, I began by writing Capital in a sequence (starting with the 3rd, historical section[1] ) quite the reverse of that in which it was presented to the public, saving only that the first volume—the last I tackled—was got ready for the press straight away, whereas the two others remained in the rough form which all research originally assumes.

I enclose a photograph herewith, because the copy of the French edition that goes off to you at the same time as this letter only contains a very far from flattering likeness done from a London photograph by a Parisian artist.

Your most obedient Servant,

Karl Marx

  1. ↑ Marx is referring to the Theories of Surplus Value which make up the bulk of his Economic Manuscript of 1861-63 (see Note 62).