Letter to Ferdinand Freiligrath, September 5, 1849

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To Ferdinand Freiligrath in Cologne

This letter was first published in English in full in The Letters of Karl Marx, selected and translated with explanatory notes and an introduction by Saul K. Padover, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliff, New Jersey, 1979.

London, 5 September 1849

Dear Freiligrath,

Address: Karl Blind, 18 Roberts Street,
Peterson’s Coffeehouse, Grosvenor Square;
therein the letter to me under cover.

I can only write a word or two since I have had a kind of cholerine for the past 4-5 days and feel dreadfully listless.

My wife has written and asked me to acknowledge receipt of your letter enclosing 100 fr. Just imagine what blackguards the Paris police are; they have even been harassing my wife and it was only with difficulty that she succeeded in obtaining permission to remain in Paris until 15 September. We had rented our lodgings there up to that date.

I am now in a really difficult situation. My wife is in an advanced state of pregnancy, she is obliged to leave Paris on the 15th and I don’t know how I am to raise the money for her journey and for settling her in here.

On the other hand there are excellent prospects of my being able to start a monthly review [Neue Rheinische Zeitung. Politisch-ökonomische Revue] here; but I am pressed for time and the first weeks constitute the real difficulty.

Lassalle seems to have been offended by my letter to you and another I wrote to him. This was certainly very far from my intention, and I should already have written to him, if my present condition did not make letter-writing a real burden to me.

Once I am more or less on my feet again I shall write to you in greater detail about politics. I look forward to a few lines from you soon. Best regards to your wife, Daniels, etc.

Your
K. Marx