Letter to Karl Kautsky, August 11, 1886

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 11 August 1886


First published, in Russian, in Marx-Engels Archives, Vol. I (VI), Moscow, 1932
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 47


ENGELS TO KARL KAUTSKY

IN LONDON

Eastbourne, 11 August 1886
4 Cavendish Place

Dear Baron,

I shall gladly do my best as regards your ms. But to promise that it will be seen to by a specific date in the near future is utterly impossible: 1) everything depends upon the pressure of printed sheets,[1] each of which I must read through carefully at least 3 times for proof-correcting and the 1st and 2nd revisions; 2) I have accumulated such a pile of urgent correspondence — which has been completely neglected for the past 3 months — that I shall have to dispose of that first; 3) 2 mss. have been lying about here for 7 months awaiting revision; however, I shall set them aside if needs must.[2]

So send me the ms. and nous verrons.[3] In any case he[4] only needs the first instalment, so send me that.

Dietz must not hear a word about my going through it. I am only too familiar with the way he casts all discretion to the winds as soon as he senses that some commercial benefit may be in the offing. If necessary, therefore, you will have to find another source of information.

Changeable weather since yesterday. As regards papers, etc., please send me only the French, Spanish and German-American Socialists,[5] the Sozialdemokrat, the Volkszeitung, Volksfreund and Nature; the others can wait. All company prospectuses and reports can likewise wait.

I shall now get back to the printed sheets. I trust the sea air did you both good, especially your wife. Every night between 9 and 11 we have a hectic game of cards; so far I have been marvellously lucky — as a loser. Nim and the Roshers send their best wishes.

Regards to your wife.

Your

F.E.

  1. ↑ of the English translation of the first volume of Capital (see Note 56)
  2. ↑ This evidently refers to the Italian translation of Marx's Wage Labour and Capital and Hermann Schlüter's work on the history of the Chartist movement (see Note 557).
  3. ↑ we shall see
  4. ↑ J. H.W. Dietz
  5. ↑ Le Socialiste, El Socialista, Der Sozialist