Letter to Laura Lafargue, June 24, 1883

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 24 June 1883


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, Second Russian Edition, Vol. 36, Moscow, 1964
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 47


ENGELS TO LAURA LAFARGUE

IN PARIS

London, 24 June 1883

My dear Laura,

When you spoke of your knowledge of what poor Moor's views and wishes had been at Vevey,7 it was in connection with dispositions of a more or less testamentary nature, and I therefore naturally concluded that you alluded to similar subjects. And as those might comprise wishes as to what should be done with some mementos of your Mama, etc., books and so forth, and as here we are bound to come to some conclusion or other, and Tussy moreover seems to shun responsibility of acting on her own hook, I thought it my clear duty to inform you, so that, in case you had anything to communicate, it could be done in time.

After poor Mohr's death, on my inquiry, Tussy informed me that he had told her, she and I were to take possession of all his papers, and procure the publication of what was to be published, especially the 2nd volume[1] and the mathematical works.[2] The 3rd German edition[3] is in hand, I am looking after that too. If you wish to have Mohr's exact words, Tussy will no doubt give them to you if you ask her to do so.

This matter was talked about here when Paul was here, and I am almost certain he is aware of it.

As to the expression, literary executors, I am alone responsible for it. I could not find another at the time, and if by it I have in any way offended you, I humbly ask your pardon.[4]

How the disposition itself can wound you, I cannot see. The work must be done here on the spot. The real work, that you know as well as Tussy does, will mostly have to be done by me. But as Mohr had one daughter living in London, I find it but natural that he should associate her to me in such work as she could do. Had you been living here instead of in Paris, all the three of us would have been jointly appointed, no doubt about that.

But there is another view of the case. According to English law (which we had explained by Sam Moore) the only person living which is the legal representative of Mohr, in England, is Tussy. Or rather the only person who can become his legal representative by taking out letters of administration. This must be done by the next of kin living in England—Tussy; unless she declines and proposes someone else, who also must reside in the United Kingdom. So that legally I too am out of it. For various reasons these letters of administration have to be taken out.

Of the projects Mohr discussed with you at Vevey I was of course utterly ignorant and only regret you did not come over since the 14th March, when we should have known and complied with them as much as possible. But here is how the matter stands with regard to the English translation.[5] We find (from Sam. Moore as well as from Meissner) that we have no right to stop anyone from publishing an unauthorised translation. That right, in the best of cases, lasts but three years after first publication and lapsed finally in 1870. Now there were several people in the field and a well-meaning but poor and unbusinesslike publisher, Reeves, the most undesirable man of all, told Radford he had found a translator and was going to publish his translation. There was then no time to lose. We must find someone willing and able to do the work — we could think of no one but Sam. Moore and of Kegan Paul and Co. as publishers. The two entered into correspondence, then Tussy saw Kegan Paul, then I. Nothing is concluded, but very probably we shall come to some agreement. The question is: would you, under the altered circumstances, have undertaken to do the translation and bind yourself to a given time, say 6 months?

As to the History of the International, I am perfectly willing, as far as I am concerned, that all papers, etc., relating to the International be handed over to you for that purpose. But my plan was to write a full biography of Mohr,[6] and if you take those papers, that falls to the ground. Mohr's life without the International would be a diamond ring with the diamond broken out.

I have said nothing to Tussy about your letter, as I do not wish to interfere in any way between two sisters. Therefore, if you require any explanations from her, you will please write direct to her. But I think the best thing you could do, is to come over and have the matter mutually explained. You know very well there is on my part no other desire but to consider your wishes as much as possible and in every respect. And I am the same in the case with Tussy. If you wish to have your name associated to ours in the common work, and if you wish to share this work, and means can be found how, I for one shall only be glad of that. As it is we shall want your assistance often enough for information, etc., and nothing could throw greater obstacles in our way than fresh unpleasantness between you and Tussy. What we all of us are desirous of seeing carried out, is a befitting monument to the memory of Mohr, the first portion of which will and must be the publication of his posthumous works. Let us then all contribute what we can towards that end.

The only person to whom I have spoken about this matter is Nim and she is quite of the opinion expressed above.

As to our two martyrs,[7] they seem happy and contented enough, and even afraid of Grévy's putting an end to their prison-bliss on the 14th July.9 What a fine sentence that on Louise Michel![8] Fortunately nobody knows who will rule France a couple of years hence. A shell between the legs of Alexander III, and all prison doors in Europe and Asia fly open except — the Irish ones.

Now I must conclude. I have to read proof-sheets No. 4 of 3rd edition1 which arrived here on Saturday0 and I have bound myself to return them in 48 hours. Then I have to work at the alterations for 3rd edition (done up to page 404) partly upon an annotated copy,[9] partly upon the French edition,[10] which must be done quick so as not to give excuse for delay. So no more at present.

Ever yours affectionately,

F. Engels

  1. ↑ of the second volume of Capital
  2. ↑ As he was sorting through Marx's literary legacy, Engels found a number of works relating to Marx's preoccupation with mathematics. Marx's interest in mathematics had emerged in the early 1850s and had grown as he worked on Capital (see Marx's letter to Engels of 11 January 1858, present edition, Vol. 40). The first signs of Marx's mathematical endeavours date back to 1846 and are to be found in his initial notebooks on political economy. In the 1850s and 1860s this work was of an auxiliary nature and connected with his studies of political economy, but in the latter half of the 1870s it became systematic and more independent. Marx's most complete mathematical manuscripts were first published in full in the language of the original (German) with a parallel Russian translation in: K. Маркс, Математические рукописи, Nauka, Moscow, 1968 (see Note 79).
  3. ↑ of the first volume of Capital
  4. ↑ In his article 'On the Death of Karl Marx' carried by Der Sozialdemokrat in May 1883 (see present edition, Vol. 24, p. 476) Engels announced that Marx's works would be published by his literary executors, Marx's youngest daughter Eleanor and Engels himself.
  5. ↑ Of the first volume of Capital; see this volume, p. 29.
  6. ↑ Engels attached a great deal of importance to publicising Marx's theoretical and practical revolutionary activity. With this aim in mind, he wrote three biographies of Marx at different times — in 1869, 1877 and 1892 — and for different publications (see present edition, Vol. 21, pp. 59-64, Vol. 24, pp. 183-95 and Vol. 27, pp. 332-43). The new biography which Engels planned, taking account of the extensive correspondence and other materials which had survived, and to which he refers in this letter, was not written.
  7. ↑ Paul Lafargue and Jules Guesde
  8. ↑ Louise Michel, a French revolutionary and participant in the Paris Commune, was sentenced in June 1883 to six years' imprisonment and ten years' stringent police surveillance for taking part in a Paris unemployed demonstration in March 1883. She was amnestied in January 1886.
  9. ↑ The reference is to Marx's surviving personal copy of the first volume of the second German edition of Capital (Hamburg, 1872). All the changes and additions which Marx made to the text are given in Marx/Engels Gesammtausgabe (MEGA), Abt. II, Bd. 8, Berlin, 1988.
  10. ↑ The first volume of Capital was translated into French in full by Joseph Roy and appeared in Paris in 1872-75 as individual instalments which were then put together to form a book. Marx gave an assessment of the translation and the work which had been done in connection with it in the Preface and Afterword to the French edition (see present edition, Vol. 35) and also in his letter to Nikolai Danielson of 28 May 1872 (present edition, Vol. 44). The changes and additions which Engels made to the third German edition of Volume I of Capital (1883) on the basis of the French edition were pointed out by him in the Preface to the said edition (see present edition, Vol. 35).