Letter to Adolf Hepner, July 25, 1882

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 25 July 1882


First published, in Russian, in Marx-Engels Archives, Vol. I (VI), Moscow, 1932
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 46


ENGELS TO ADOLF HEPNER

IN NEW YORK

[Draft]

London, 25 July 1882

Dear Mr Hepner,

My delay in replying has been due to Marx's illness and frequent changes of abode. It was not until recently that I was able to correspond with him about business matters. Our views[1] on your projected undertaking[2] are as follows:

As you are fully entitled in law to reprint anything that appears in Europe, you would, in our opinion, do best to go ahead and exercise that right without asking anybody. If you wish to reprint the Communist Manifesto we can have no objection whatever, nor would it occur to us to protest against it, provided there were no changes or omissions — in any case inadmissible in an historical document — or unless compelled to do so by unwarranted notes. We cannot write a preface, not only because we are not together, but also, and still more, because we should thereby be identifying ourselves to some extent with an undertaking which we are not in a position either to supervise or to control, nor, indeed, might we wish to do so. As it is, you will be entirely at liberty to reprint anything else you wish, without our ever having cause to complain of the company in which our works appear.

The same applies to my Condition of the Working Class. If you reprint it as it stands I can have no objection. Were I, however, to give you my special consent, I should be obliged to provide the addenda and notes needed to bring the book up to date, and that would be 6 months' work. Moreover I should require prior guarantees that the undertaking, once begun, would be brought to a conclusion.

I trust I have convinced you that it would be in your best interests to go ahead on your own. We shall certainly not place any obstacle in the way of the undertaking unless compelled to do so; rather the reverse.

As regards a new abridgement of Capital, Marx has had so many unpleasant experiences with this kind of thing that no further approaches should be made to him about the matter, especially not at the moment. However (this in confidence) Marx has purged the second edition of Most's abridgement[3] of its grosser errors and made a few addenda, so that this edition is not without its merits and could be reprinted.

Otherwise there is little that I can recommend for reprinting. The literature produced by Leipzig consists largely in the socialism of the future and doctoral dissertations by parliamentary candidates. Jules Guesde's French stuff is good on the whole, but too closely geared to French conditions. Bracke's Nieder mit den Sozialdemokraten! is perhaps not suitable for America. Bebel's parliamentary speeches are by far the best thing that Germany has produced in our line, but they are, of course, made for the occasion. Lassalle teems with economic howlers and his whole viewpoint was superseded long ago. Bracke's Lassallescher Vorschlag is a pretty good piece of criticism, though not exhaustive.

Well, it's for you to choose. Wishing your undertaking the best of luck,

Yours,

F. E.

  1. ↑ Ibid., p. 284.
  2. ↑ Engels' information about the losses sustained by the Russian army at Plevna and its 'collapse' and 'disintegration' was grossly exaggerated. There was prolonged fighting for this strategically located fortress from July to November 1877. After three abortive attempts to take Plevna by storm, in which the Russian army lost about 25,000 men, it was decided to resort to a siege, which began in September. On 28 November (10 December) 1877, the totally isolated 50,000-strong garrison tried to break through but, having lost about 6,000 men, surrendered. The fall of Plevna allowed the Russian command to release over 100,000 men for an advance beyond the Balkans.
  3. ↑ Kulturkampf (struggle for culture)—the name given to a system of measures implemented by the Bismarck government in the 1870s against the Catholic Church and the Party of the Centre which was closely associated with it (see Note 423). Using the pretext of a campaign for 'secular culture', the Bismarck government sought to subjugate the clergy and cripple the Party of the Centre. With this end in view, it passed laws (1871-75) curtailing the rights of the Catholic clergy and abolishing the Catholic Church's right of supervision over the schools. Bismarck used the anti-Catholic campaign to bolster Prussian influence in the Polish lands under Prussian jurisdiction. In the second half of the 1870s and the early 1880s, as the working-class movement began to grow, Bismarck effected a reconciliation with the Catholic Church in an effort to consolidate the forces of reaction, and most of these laws were repealed.