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Special pages :
Letter to Friedrich Engels, April 12, 1859
| Author(s) | Karl Marx |
|---|---|
| Written | 12 April 1859 |
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 40
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 12 April 1859
Dear Engels,
Yesterday Lassalle wrote to me about your pamphlet[1] as follows:
'Engels' pamphlet came out 3 days ago. Today I am sending him two copies by book post, as I shall do each day for 6 days in succession. For this is the only way we could devise' (!) 'of avoiding heavy postal charges on the one hand and, on the other, preventing certain persons from guessing who was the pamphlet's author. Write and tell him this.'[2]
Have you ever known such tomfoolery? To distract attention from you, they send you copies by book post '6 days in succession'!
Of the thing itself Lassalle writes:
'The pamphlet is truly impressive by reason of the pungency and sterling quality of the strategic knowledge evinced therein.'
(The 'pungency' of 'knowledge' may be regarded as a lapsus pennae)
As to my own affair,[3] Lassalle writes:
'Duncker tells me that the instalments will be ready by mid-May.'
(So that's another month's delay.)
'He maintains he is getting on with the printing as quickly as he can. At any rate you are utterly wrong in supposing that he is deliberately dragging his feet. He's always rather slow.'
What I do know, however, is that another 10 days have gone by without my getting a proof-sheet.
Apropos. The Neue Zeit is on its last legs. Mr Edgar, who actually ended up by gracing its columns with a short story of his own contriving,[4] resigned a week ago—realising that the world was thoroughly unamenable to his genius. Last Saturday[5] it came out as a half number, and this week will probably see the end of it. The Hermann, too, according to current rumour, will soon depart this life. A good thing the curs snatched so eagerly at the opportunity of thus shamelessly laying bare their nonentity before all the world. Kinkel has KILLED the Kinkel humbug with his own hand. The CLOWN,[6] for his part, has found out just how 'easy' it is to take our place in communist literature.
Salut.
Your
K. M.
You explained the Austrian plan of attack in the Tribune just as you describe it.
Pas trop de zèle![7]
- ↑ Po and Rhine
- ↑ Here and below Marx quotes Lassalle's letter to him of 8 April 1859 (the italics are Marx's).
- ↑ i.e. the publication of the book A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy
- ↑ E. Bauer, 'Das Kloster', Die Neue Zeit, Nos. 38 42, 19 and 26 March and 2, 10 and 16 April 1859.
- ↑ 9 April
- ↑ Edgar Bauer
- ↑ Not too much zeal! (The dictum is attributed to Talleyrand.)