Letter to Karl Kautsky, August 24, 1886

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 24 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, 24 August 1886
4 Cavendish Place

Dear Kautsky,

I have been completely crushed, smothered, squashed and stultified by your avalanche of letters this morning. I shall have to see how I can manage to answer them. Very many thanks.

Liebknecht has written to say he may set off for London as early as tomorrow, taking the direct route via Flushing—I am expecting more definite word any day; as soon as I know the day he's arriving, I shall come up for the day and bring him back here. I shouldn't buy him an Esel[1] if I were you, he can write perfectly well on board ship without an Esel. Or is he expecting to be seasick all the time? But so far no Esel has been able to cope with seasickness.

Old Becker[2] will be arriving from Geneva on the 12th-13th to stay with me in London.

Mother Schack has announced her intention of coming to London in the middle of September along with the Wischnewetzkys.[3]

If Schorlemmer and the Lafargues turn up as well — postcard arrived 16th August from Schorlemmer in Bellaggio, Lake of Como — it will be pretty hectic.

We shall be staying here until 4 September — a week on Saturday.

Nim and the Pumpses send their best wishes to your wife and yourself, as does

Your

F.E.

  1. ↑ A fragment of this letter was first published in English in: K. Marx, F. Engels, On Reactionary Prussianism, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1943.
  2. ↑ Johann Philipp Becker
  3. ↑ On 16 August 1886 Gertrud Guillaume-Schack informed Engels that she intended to come to London in mid-September in the company of the Wischnewetzkys.