Letter to Florence Kelley, May 28, 1887

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 28 May 1887


First published, in the language of the original (English), in Briefe und Auszüge aus Briefen von Job. Phil. Becker, Jos. Dietzgen, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx u. A. an F A. Sorge und Andere, Stuttgart, 1906
Reproduced from the original
Published in English in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48


ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY-WISCHNEWETZKY[1]

IN NEW YORK

London, 28 May 1887

Dear Mrs Wischnewetzky,

I find both Injustice and Sozialdemokrat of this week a notice of the English Lage,[2] but have myself up to now not received a single copy, nor even seen the book. There seems to be some queer management some- where, which may want looking into by you.—Just this moment Karl Kautsky comes in and says he has received a box with 18 copies, of which he kindly places a few at my disposal, so that I have at least a chance of a look at the book.

I am informed that the London Agent[3] of Mr Lovell is the firm which specially represents Bismarckism in the London Book Trades. This cannot of course be helped but is an unfortunate circumstance for us. Translation of preface[4] just too late for this Steamer, per next mail certain.

Yours faithfully

F. E.

  1. ↑ Engels wrote this letter on a postcard. The address, written by him on the back, reads Mrs. F. Kelly-Wischnewetzky, 110, East 76th St., New York, U.S. America. For data on the first publication of the letter in English see note 139.
  2. ↑ In a letter dated 10 December 1886 Kelley-Wischnewetzky asked Engels to write a preface to the American edition of The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, which she had translated into English. She argued that Engels' Afterword, written for this edition in February 1886, was out of date (see present edition, Vol. 26), and suggested that the new preface should, above all, contain a critique of Henry George and that the words 'in 1844' should be omitted from the title. In reply to her request Engels wrote the article 'The Labor Movement in America', which was to open the book.
  3. ↑ Trübner
  4. ↑ Kelley-Wischnewetzky had suggested that Engels's article, 'Die Arbeiterbewegung in America' ('The Labour Movement in America'), written as a preface to the US edition of The Condition of the Working Class in England, should be issued in the form of separate German and English pamphlets. This was also suggested by Sorge in his letter of 26 April 1887. Engels translated the preface into German himself. The pamphlets appeared in New York in July 1887. Engels's German translation was also published in the Sozialdemokrat, Nos 24 and 25; 10 and 17 June 1887.