Letter to Hermann Schluter, January 23, 1888

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 23 January 1888


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, First Russian Edition, Vol. XXVIII, Moscow, 1940
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 48


ENGELS T O H E R M A N N SCHLÜTER

IN HOTTINGEN-ZURICH

[London], 23 January 1888

Dear Mr Schlüter,

You should have the Theory of Force by 20 February; you would be getting it even sooner but for the intervention of the English translation of the Manifesto[1] which I must polish off quickly with Sam Moore, the translator of Capital, who is here with me, otherwise I shall be missing a splendid opportunity.

As soon as that is done—by the end of the week—I'll go back to the final part of the Theory of Force, which provides a rapid survey of historical events between 1848 and 1888 in so far as they are applicable to the subject. This time I shall annoy Bismarck even more than I did with my Schnaps.[2]

Kindest regards.

Yours,

F. E.

The only thing that might possibly intervene would by my eyesight, for which I'm receiving treatment so as to get the wretched business properly over and done with—but in that case I shall write.

  1. ↑ K. Marx and F. Engels, Manifesto of the Communist Party
  2. ↑ The reference is to Engels' article Prussian Schnapps in the German Reichstag (see present edition, Vol. 24, pp. 109-27). The publication of this work, exposing the Prussian Junkers, in the newspaper Volksstaat and in the form of a reprint, caused exasperation in government quarters. Therefore the promulgation of Engels' works in Germany was banned.