Letter to Friedrich Engels, December 6, 1860

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MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 6 December 1860

Dear Frederick,

Best thanks for the £2. The OFFICE closest to me is the CAMDEN T O W N MONEY OFFICE.

As regards the want of résumés, you are perfectly right. They were there originally, but were deleted by me when I saw how much the affair had grown without my noticing it. For, printed in the normal way, the thing would amount to a very stout volume. You will find, by the by, that in Chapter XI, 'A Lawsuit', all the personal stuff is so thoroughly dinned into your philistine that it will remain with him for the rest of his days.

As for Monsieur Edouard Simon, the cur described you in his mud-slinging article (a malicious translation of Techow's 'police spy') as le mouchard toujours affairé. Whereat I took it upon myself to make an example of the laddie, since insults aimed at you vex me more than those directed against myself.

Apropos—BY THE BY—as soon as Lupus has got through the thing, I'd be grateful if he could drop me a line or two. My wife's greatest pleasure at the moment consists in letters about it. On the whole, she is getting on well, but slowly.

Mr Philistine Freiligrath, that 'snotty Westphalian snout', wrote to me yesterday as follows:

'Your book,' (not pamphlet, egad!) 'has been sent me by Petsch. Many thanks! From what I have read so far, I find it is, as I expected, full of wit and malice. There is so much detail as almost to make it difficult to get a general idea of it. You will excuse me if I do not enter into the case as such. Even today I still deplore the whole dispute from which now, as before, I would sooner stand aloof.'

What do you think of those two last sentences? The swine, who was already aware of Vogt's lies and Blind's turpitude, but now has them before him in black and white, is unwilling (not, mark you, that I invited him to do so) 'to enter into the case as such'. And 'now, as before,' he 'would sooner stand aloof from the whole dispute'. It now seems to me that he hasn't yet read the whole of it, for he would then see just where he stands. I have now discovered the secret of his intimacy with Blind (it is business, of course, that ties him to Vogt-Fazy). Namely, on the occasion of the Schiller festival, Freiligrath had 20,000 copies of his poem printed at a cost of £40-60. He wanted to make a business of it. But didn't sell forty. Since his speculation had failed, it now behoved him 'to palm off the cost, as Petsch aptly put it, onto the Schiller committee. In this Blind was his most servile TOOL. Hinc the 'reciprocal good turn' done by the snotty Westphalian snout.

You will find the misprints you repiobate listed in the errata. Originally, the list was 3 times as long. But since it looked bad, we shortened it. The fault lies entirely with Hirschfeld, a ninny who has no control over his compositor. Petsch isn't having anything else printed by him.

Salut.

Your

K. M.

Should something or other occur to you that might do for a military pamphlet of 1-3 sheets, Petsch would be delighted, for he now wants to achieve the status of 'publisher and bookseller'. He's a very nice chap.