Letter to Hermann Schluter, January 13, 1885

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 13 January 1885


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVII, Moscow, 1935
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 47


ENGELS TO HERMANN SCHLÜTER

IN HOTTINGEN-ZURICH

London, 13 January 1885

Dear Mr Schlüter,

By all means start with the Anti-Dühring as soon as convenient.[1]

I have not read the philistine's reply,[2] nor do I wish to do so. Reply he cannot and he's welcome to lay about him with as much insolent verbiage as he wishes.

I have long been searching in vain for the Rheinische Zeitung Revue. I only have numbers 3, 5 and 6; 1, 2 and 4 are missing. There are virtually no articles in them worth reprinting. Numbers 1-4 contain Marx's history of the French Revolution from 1848 to 1850[3] (comprised in the 18th Brumaire) and my account of events in May 1849 in the Rhineland and Baden-Palatinate.[4] Then the Peasant War[5] (5 and 6) and short critical essays, as also a review of daily events.

The right to work is not touched on other than very briefly in, I think, Number I; Marx wasn't much interested in catchphrases.

It would be quite a good idea for you to inquire from Wigand in your own name about a new edition of the Condition etc., but that won't get us very much further. I have got to know how I stand with him in law and shall inquire again from Freytag. N. B. I am assuming that, as soon as the matter is sufficiently advanced, you will come to an understanding with Dietz, as he does in fact have, or might assert, a prior claim.

Regards to Ede.

Yours faithfully,

F. Engels

  1. ↑ On 7 April 1884 Eduard Bernstein informed Engels that the second and third parts of his work Anti-Dühring ('Political Economy' and 'Socialism', see present edition, Vol. 25) were almost sold out and that 300 copies remained of the first part ('Philosophy'). He therefore suggested that a new edition of the work be prepared, but this time as a single volume and not in separate parts. The second German edition of Anti-Dühring appeared in Zurich at the beginning of December 1885 with additions made by Engels to the second chapter of the third part. The title page gave the year of publication as 1886.
  2. ↑ E. Dühring, Kritische Geschichte der Nationalökonomie und des Socialismus.
  3. ↑ K. Marx, The Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850.
  4. ↑ F. Engels, The Campaign for the German Imperial Constitution.
  5. ↑ F. Engels, The Peasant War in Germany. See K. Marx, The Class Struggles in France, 1848 to 1850 (present edition, Vol. 10, pp. 55-56).