Letter to Karl Kautsky, February 21, 1891

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 21 February 1891


First published in Aus der Frühzeit des Marxismus. Engels Briefwechsel mit Kautsky, Prague, 1935
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 49


ENGELS TO KARL KAUTSKY

IN STUTTGART

London, 21 February 1891

Dear Kautsky,

First of all my heartiest congratulations on the arrival of your infant.[1] I trust it keeps tippling away and that the confinement went off normally and easily. My heartiest congratulations to your wife[2] also. May the lad give you much joy.

Bebel's letter returned herewith.[3] Today I had to correct the proof of sheet 1 of the Anti-Brentano[4] otherwise I should have finished my letter to you. You'll therefore have to wait.

So my best wishes until tomorrow or the day after.

Your

F.E.

  1. ↑ Felix Kautsky
  2. ↑ Luise Kautsky, née Ronsperger
  3. ↑ This refers to the French section of 1871 formed by French refugees in London in September 1871. Its leaders maintained close ties with the Bakuninists in Switzerland and joined in their attacks on the organisational principles of the International. When the General Council suggested that the section should bring its Rules into conformity with those of the International, the section came out against the Council, questioning its powers. In the spring of 1872, part of the section's following, jointly with English bourgeois republicans (including Adolphe Smith Headingley) and Lassalleans expelled from the International for their splitting activities, formed the so-called Universal Federalist Council, which claimed the role of leader of the International.
  4. ↑ F. Engels, In the Case of Brentano Versus Marx.