Letter to F. H. Nestler & Melle's Verlag, May 13, 1886

Author(s)	Friedrich Engels
Written	13 May 1886

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

ENGELS TO F.H. NESTLER & MELLE'S VERLAG⁵⁸³

IN HAMBURG

[Draft]

[London,] 13 May 1886

Dear Sirs,

Greatly flattered though I am by the offer you made me in your kind note of the 10th inst., I regret that I must nevertheless decline it on the grounds that I cannot spare the time.

I am responsible for editing the mss. left by Marx and for turning to account all the other papers he left. It is a responsibility that will occupy my time for several years to come and must take precedence over everything else.

In addition, I am responsible for revising the translations of our works into foreign languages — an essential task in the majority of cases. Not only is there the English translation of Capital, which I must now finish and which goes to the printers next month,^[1] but also a constant influx of mss. of the kind that call for revision, translations of shorter works into French, Italian, Danish, Dutch, etc.,^[2] and these take up all that remains of my spare time.

But once I have put all this behind me, I shall, assuming I live so long, first have to turn my mind to the completion, once and for all, of my own independent works which have been totally neglected for the past three years.

Among those whose views correspond to my own, my friend Karl Kautsky would no doubt be suitable for such a position, especially as he now lives here, and I should be glad to give him all the help I could. Moreover the relevant English literature, most of it quite unknown, is obtainable nowhere save in the BRITISH MUSEUM. Yesterday, therefore, I took the liberty of informing him of your proposal. But his commitments — apart from editing the Neue Zeit — are so many and extend so far ahead that he was unable to authorise my suggesting him to you as a candidate.

I am, as you can see, most interested in your scheme and hence am all the sorrier for being unable to participate in its execution. Meanwhile I would thank you for honouring me with your proposal, and remain

Yours faithfully

↑ The idea of translating Capital into English occurred to Marx as early as 1865, when he was working on the manuscript (see Marx's letter to Engels of 31 July 1865, present edition, Vol. 42). The British journalist and member of the International's General Council, Peter Fox, was to help Marx find a publisher. However, this matter was not settled due to Fox's death in 1869. The English translation of the first volume of Capital, edited by Engels, did not appear until after Marx's death, in January 1887, and was published by Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey & Co., London. The translation was done by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling between mid-1883 and March 1886. Eleanor Marx-Aveling took part in the preparatory work for the edition (see also this volume, pp. 33 and 127-28).
↑ See this volume, p. 394.

[1] The idea of translating Capital into English occurred to Marx as early as 1865, when he was working on the manuscript (see Marx's letter to Engels of 31 July 1865, present edition, Vol. 42). The British journalist and member of the International's General Council, Peter Fox, was to help Marx find a publisher. However, this matter was not settled due to Fox's death in 1869. The English translation of the first volume of Capital, edited by Engels, did not appear until after Marx's death, in January 1887, and was published by Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey & Co., London. The translation was done by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling between mid-1883 and March 1886. Eleanor Marx-Aveling took part in the preparatory work for the edition (see also this volume, pp. 33 and 127-28).

[2] See this volume, p. 394.

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