Karl Marx

Er gilt als „einer der wichtigsten Vertreter der Jugendmusik mit zahlreichen, in ihrer schlichten Klarheit dem Volkslied nahen Vertonungen nach Texten von Rainer Maria Rilke [...] Friedrich Hölderlin, Hans Carossa und Wilhelm Busch“ (DBE). Daneben komponierte er Orchesterwerke, Instrumentalkonzerte, Kammermusik, Klaviermusik, Orgelwerke, Kantaten und zahlreiche Chorwerke. – Auf Briefpapier mit gedr. Briefkopf..

Daneben komponierte er Orchesterwerke, Instrumentalkonzerte, Kammermusik, Klaviermusik, Orgelwerke, Kantaten und zahlreiche Chorwerke..

Eingesandte Korrekturfahnen habe er nicht zurückerhalten, wie er es in seinen langjährigen Beziehungen zu deutschen, amerikanischen, englischen, belgischen und französischen Druckereien gewohnt sei – „il n’a pas repondu un seul mot“. - Lachâtre habe Anweisung gegeben, nichts weiter zu veröffentlichen, bevor nicht das vollständige Werk im Druck vorliegt; damit sei er einverstanden. Der Druck und die Zusendung von Korrekturfahnen müsse nun aber dringend fortgesetzt werden. Ferner mit einem Kommentar zur gegenwärtigen politischen Lage in Frankreich: „[…] M.M. les bonapartistes, à ce qu’il paraît, ont ni par faire peur aux orléanistes qui vous bâcleront maintenant à la hâte une république à leur facon. Mais une fois constituée je crois que celle-ci dejouera aussi l’intrigue orléaniste, mettra n au régime rural et fera son bonhomme de chemin […]“ - Im Nachwort zur französischen Ausgabe schrieb Marx: „Welches auch die literarischen Mängel dieser […] Ausgabe sein mögen, sie besitzt einen wissenschaftlichen Wert unabhängig vom Original und sollte selbst von Lesern herangezogen werden, die der deutschen Sprache mächtig sind.“ Der Verleger Maurice Lachâtre lebte wegen seiner Beteiligung an der Pariser Kommune im Exil. In MEW Band 34 S. 121 wird lediglich der letzte Absatz in deutscher Übersetzung zitiert (nach einem Brief von Emil Hirsch an Pappenheim vom 9.IX.1899). Der entsprechende Band der Marx-Engels- Gesamtausgabe ist noch nicht erschienen. Zuletzt versteigert durch Sotheby’s, London 5.12.1991, mit kurzem Zitat und Abbildung der zweiten Seite..

Julian Harvey, rédacteur du Northern Star. Salut et fraternité [...]." Flocon was the editor of the democratic newspaper "La Réforme"; Engels hat met him in October 1847 and contributed several articles. While Marx and Engels had little regard for Flocon's petty-bourgeois politics and at first viewed him chiefly as a tool for their propagandistic purposes, they soon recognized Flocon as a man of character, Engels writing on 28 March 1848: "I've been to visit old Flocon a few times, the fellow still lives in his wretched fifth-floor flat, smokes the most common tobacco in an old clay pipe and has only bought himself a new dressing gown. Otherwise quite as republican in his habits as he was as editor of the 'Réforme', and just as genial, cordial, and outspoken as ever. He's one of the most upright fellows I know." A Montagnard and member of the provisional government of the Republic in 1848 (he would be expelled from France after the 1851 coup d'état), it was Flocon who invited Marx to France with an enthusiastic letter at the very moment when he was evicted from Brussels: "Brave et loyal Marx! Le sol de la République Française est un champs d'azyle pour tous les amis de la liberté. La tyrannie vous a banni: la France libre vous rouvre ses portes à vous [...]" (Paris, 1 March 1848). When the revolutionary fervor seized Europe, Marx again set off for Germany in April, but in May 1849 the Prussian authorities turned him out. He returned to Paris in June, only to receive a notice of banishment to Brittany on 19 July. Marx fought the order, but lost his appeal on 23 August. On the same day, he wrote to Engels: "I have been banished to the Departement of Morbihan, the Pontine Marshes of Brittany. You will understand that I will have no part in this disguised attempt at murder. Hence, I am leaving France. I cannot have a passport to Switzerland, so I must to London, tomorrow [...]". A day later, he wrote the present farewell to his "cher Flocon", never again to settle on the continent. - On wove paper with floral design embossed to upper left corner, there marked "8" in faint blue crayron, likely by the recipient. Some browning and light wrinkling; traces of original folds. Some duststains and traces of mounting on blank leaf, but well preserved..

- Marx was a close friend of the Collet family, which included the pioneering feminist activist Sophia Dobson Collet, social reformer Clara Collet, and the recipient of this letter, the editor of "The Free Press: A Diplomatic Review", to which Marx contributed a number of articles. The men became good friends and soon held weekly meetings at each other's houses to recite Shakespeare. The assembled group, which was formally coined as the Dogberry Club, included Marx's daughter Eleanor and Collet's daughter Clara, as well as Edward Rose, Dollie Radford, Sir Henry Juta, and Friedrich Engels. The publication to which Marx alludes, "Revelations of the Diplomatic History of the 18th Century", was originally serialized in the "Free Press" from August 1856 to April 1857..

Mais c’est facile de changer 'ne se laisseront pas arrêter dans leur lecture par l’application de votre méthode analytique aux premières notions de l’économie politique qui par leur nature même sont très abstraites' - ou quelque chose comme ça - nous aurions avec cela fini avec les préliminaires. Ma photographie sera faite demain [...]" ("The last revised paragraph reads 'they will not let themselves be stopped from reading by the explication of your analytical methods'. This is a misunderstanding. I do not explain my method but I apply it from the beginning, but its application in the first chapters, analysing the 'commodity', 'value', 'money' is in the nature of things themselves somewhat difficult to follow. But it is easy to change to 'they will not let themselves be stopped from reading by the application of your analytical methods in the first notions of the political economy, which are by their nature very abstract' - or something similar - then we will be finished with the preliminaries. My photograph will be taken tomorrow [...]"). For the final version of the paragraph in question, Lachâtre rephrased Marx's suggestion more elegantly. - With a facsimile of Marx' letter "To citizen Maurice La Châtre", dated London, 18 March 1872, that was included among the preliminaries to the French edition of "Das Kapital" immediately before the editor's letter to Marx. - Slightly creased and buckled in the lower left corner..

Néanmoins, vos corrections me serviront toujours comme des matériaux utiles pour la correction définitive. La première livraison de la dernière édition allemande (le libraire allemand vous a imité en acceptant pour la dernière édition la forme de livraison) paraîtra probablement pendant la semaine suivante. J'ai reçu de St. Petersburgh la traduction russe (d'après la première édition). Elle est excellente. Le livre a dû passer par la censure, mais la censure n’a rien rayé excepté mon portrait. Néanmoins, comme il y a dans le livre des attaques contre la Russie, l’éditeur russe n’est pas encore en dehors de tout danger. Pour la dernière correction j'ai ici l’assistance de Longuet, Vaillant, Lissagaray et autres communards compétents. Vos nouvelles politiques m’intéressent beaucoup et vous m'obligerez beaucoup en les continuant. À propos. Un libraire français (de Paris) - tout en me demandant de ne pas le nommer - m’a offert de republier mon livre (français) contre Proudhon: Misère de la Philosophie. Réponse à la Philosophie de la Misère de M. Proudhon. Bruxelles et Paris 1847. L’édition est complètement épuisée. J’ai des mauvaises nouvelles de Madrid sur l’état de santé du petit Lafargue [...]". - ("You are mistaken! Mr Roy is French. He spent (but when he was already a grown man) some years in Germany. He translates simple passages too literally but shows his strengths when it comes to more difficult things. Nevertheless, your corrections will always serve me as useful material for the final correction. The first instalment of the latest German edition (the German publisher is imitating you by accepting the mode of instalments for the latest edition) will probably appear during the next week. I have received from St. Petersburg the Russian translation (off the first edition). It is excellent. The books had to pass censorship but the censors haven't effaced anything except my portrait. Nevertheless, since there are attacks on Russia in the book, the Russian editor is not yet fully out of danger. For the last correction I have here the assistance of Longuet, Vaillant, Lissagaray and other competent members of the Commune. By the way. A French publisher (from Paris) - who asked me not to mention his name - offered me to reissue my book (French) against Proudhon: The Poverty of Philosophy. A reply to 'The Philosophy of Poverty' of M. Proudhon. Brussels and Paris 1847. This edition is completely sold out. I have bad news from Madrid concerning the health condition of the little Lafargue [...]"). - Nine hundred copies of the Russian translation of "Das Kapital" were published in 1872 and, to Marx's surprise, quickly sold out. A French re-edition of "The Poverty of Philosophy" did not come forward during Marx's lifetime. Like his two siblings, Étienne Lafargue, the son of Paul Lafargue and Karl Marx's second daughter Laura, did not reach adulthood but died at the age of four in Madrid in May 1872. - Slightly creased..

lesquels ne sont pas inclus dans une lettre mais, comme c’était le cas avec le manuscrit, dans une enveloppe ouverte, ne compte pas en France, mais seulement pour l’Angleterre. - Je ferai remarquer en passant qu’à l’exception du dernier envoi, j’avais toujours envoyé le manuscrit à vous et à M. Roy (et il a reçu le manuscrit de presque tout le volume) sous forme de lettre recommandée (j’ai payé plus de deux livres st. pour cela pour Bordeaux seul), mais trouvant que votre librairie, sans tenir compte de cela, n’a pas même affranchi les 100 exemplaires du premier fascicule, je commençais aussi de lésiner et d’envoyer le manuscrit sous une forme qui coûtait moins cher. Le résultat a prouvé que dans les circonstances actuelles de votre pays il est absolument nécessaire d’envoyer le manuscrit par lettre recommandée. Maintenant je vous envoie la première partie du manuscrit perdu que j’ai retraduit. Même dans le cas que la poste française vous remettait le manuscrit original, il faudra faire imprimer le nouveau manuscrit qui vaut mieux que le premier. N’oubliez pas de me renvoyer le manuscrit avec les épreuves. Au commencement de la semaine prochaine je vous enverrai du manuscrit pour plus d’une livraison […]" ("You know that I sent the manuscript to M. Lahure on October 8. On October 19, I received a letter from M. Lahure announcing that the manuscript had not arrived at his address. Thus began a correspondence between the higher administration of the English mail and me. In a letter from the day before yesterday the secretary general of the postal service tells me - 1) That the manuscript was duly sent to France and that they are now inquiring in Paris; - 2) that the registration of papers, journals etc. that are not included in a letter but, as it was the case with the manuscript, in an open envelope is not permitted in France but only in England. I may remark, by the way, that with the exception of the last shipment, I have always sent the manuscript to you and to M. Roy (and he received the manuscript to almost the entire volume) by way of a registered letter (I paid more than two pounds sterling for that to Bordeaux alone), but finding out that your publishing house, without taking it into account, has not even franked the first 100 copies of the first instalment, I also started to be stingy and to send the manuscript in a cheaper way. The result of which has proven that in the current situation of your country it is absolutely necessary to send the manuscript as a registered letter. Now I send you the first part of the lost manuscript that I have retranslated. Even if the French mail delivers the original to you, it will be necessary to print the new manuscript since it is better than the first one. Do not forget to return the manuscript to me together with the proofs. Beginning of next week I will send you manuscripts for more than one instalment [...]"). - With an inventory note at the top of the page and two minuscule holes from stapling to the bottom..

Roy que j’avais prêt, c. à d. corrigé. Pourquoi n’ai-je pas encore reçu les dernières épreuves de livr[aisons] 8 et 9 ? Vous les aviez envoyés à Bordeaux où M. Roy n’est pas pour le moment. Mais quoiqu’il est très juste et même dicté par les convenances de lui envoyer des épreuves, cela ne devrait jamais devenir une cause de retard. Les corrections sont faites ici et non par lui. Longuet - qui demeure à Oxford - vous fait saluer [...]" (5 Nov. 1872) ("Enclosed is the continuation of the 'lost' manuscript. Until tomorrow the rest, and the manuscript of M. Roy that I have ready, that is corrected. Why have I not already received the last proofs of the instalments 8 and 9? You sent them to Bordeaux where M. Roy currently is not. But although it is quite correct and even dictated by convention to send him the proofs, this can never become the cause for a delay. The corrections are done here and not by him. Longuet, who stays in Oxford, sends you greetings [...]"). - The postscript concerning a possible Italian translation of "Das Kapital" reads: "Je ne sais plus si je vous ai déjà communiqué que deux traducteurs - le général La Cecilia et Bignami (rédacteur de La Plebe à Lodi) se sont offerts pour la traduction italienne" ("I do not remember anymore whether I already communicated to you that two translators - General La Cecilia and Bignami (editor of La Plebe in Lodi) offered themselves for an Italian translation"). - II. Concerning further pages of the manuscript and missing proofs: "Je vous envoie aujourd’hui du manuscrit, p. 365-416 (inclus). Veuillez bien m’en accuser réception. Des trois placards (à commencer par 16) que M. Lahure m’a envoyés je n’ai reçu qu’un seul exemplaire, et je regrette d’avoir à répéter toujours de nouveau qu’il me faut deux exemplaires de chaque placard. Il me faut donc envoyer un nouveau exemplaire de chaque placard [...]" (18 Nov. 1872) ("Today I send you pages 365 to 416 (enclosed). Please acknowledge their receipt. Of the three proofs (beginning with 16) that M. Lahure sent me, I have not received but a single copy and I regret that I always must repeat that I need two copies of each proof. Therefore I need to be sent a new copy of each proof [...]"). - III. Explaining problems with the English mail in sending the manuscripts: "Il paraît que les agents subalternes de la Poste Anglaise avaient demandé à ma servante un affranchissement 'insuffisant' et qu’ensuite l’administration supérieure nous punit pour les péchés de ses propres gens. J’ai immédiatement arrangé l’affaire et j’espère qu’on expédiera le manuscrit aujourd’hui. J’attends encore - en vain jusqu’ici - l’envoi par M. Lahure d’un second exemplaire des placards 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30. Par cela on me fait perdre le temps […]" (23 Nov.) ("It seems that the subordinate employees of the English mail asked my servant for 'insufficient' postage and that, later, the higher echelons punished us for the sins of their own people. I immediately sorted out the affair and I hope that they will dispatch the manuscript today. I am still waiting - so far in vain - for the shipment from M. Lahure of a second copy of the proofs 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30. Thus I lose time [...]"). - IV. Complaining about the missing proofs: "Je n’ai pas encore reçu le[s] duplicates des placards que vous m’aviez annoncé dans votre dernière lettre. J’espère que vous mettrez fin, une fois pour toutes à ces procédés dilatoires de M. Lahure […]" (28 Nov.) ("I have not yet received the copies of the proofs that you announced to me in your most recent letter. I expect that you will make an end to these dilatory proceedings by M. Lahure once and for all [...]"). - All letters with an inventory note and two minuscule holes from stapling. The letter from 23 Nov. with frayed left border (no text loss)..

M. Roy s’est obligé par son contrat avec M. Lachâtre de m’envoyer tous les dix jours soixante pages. Comme la révision de la copie me donne déjà trop de travail, j’ai sûrement le droit de demander que les clauses du traité soient rigoureusement et régulièrement exécutées. Ayez la bonté de faire M. Vernouillet écrit à M. Roy pour qu’il envoie de la copie et de communiquer cette lettre à M. Lachâtre [...]" ("I have no more copy. On February 16th, I wrote to M. Vernouillet that I have had none for weeks. So he had to write to M. Roy, and after another period of time I finally received more copy, but not enough. This way of doing things occasions constant interruptions, the more as it seems to me that you do not print before having printing plates, as you need to have, for instance, instalments 18 to 24 to be able to print instalments 15 to 20. M. Roy is obliged by the contract with M. Lachâtre to send me 60 pages every ten days. The copy's revision already burdens me with a lot of work, so that I could at least ask for strict and regular adherence of the clauses of the contract. Would you please have the kindness to have M. Vernouillet write to M. Roy to send more copy and to communicate this letter to M. Lachâtre [...]". - Lower margin with slight creases..

Roy has asked M. Lachâtre to give him 300 f. by the end of this month. M. Lachâtre has asked me to give my authorisation. Therefore, I write to you and to M. L. today to authorise you to pay M. Roy this sum immediately. From M. Roy's letter I see that he has not received a single printed fascicle. That is almost unbelievable! Surely, this was not a means to prompt his work or to even make him change his mode of translation [...]"). - With old inventory note..

de l'autre côté: il recevra 200 f. à la fin d'Avril et le reste à la fin de Mai. D'après une lettre de M. Roy il n'a pas encore reçu un seul fascicle imprime! Je trouve cela très étrange! Comment voulez vous qu'il ait activé son travail en ne voyant rien apparaître? Encore, ce n'était que par l'étude des fascicles imprimés qu'il avait été amené à changer sa méthode de traduction. Je suppose que vous n'êtes pour rien dans ce procédé pas convenable [...]" ("I have written to M. Vernouillet authorizing him to pay M. Roy 300 f. M. Roy, who has got married and has become a father, is in a difficult situation. In order to enable him to give fewer lectures and spend more time on the translation, M. Roy and I have agreed on this: on the one hand, I will receive 50 pages every 10 days (some forty pages must arrive tomorrow); this way his translation will be finished by the end of May. On the other hand, he will receive 200 f. by the end of April and the remainder by the end of May. According to a letter from M. Roy he has not yet received a single printed fascicle! I find this very strange! How do you expect him to keep up his work without seeing anything that is released? After all, it was only by studying the printed fascicles that he was made to change his method of translation. I suppose you are not involved at all in this unpleasant process [...]")..

V et VI. J'espère lui pouvoir fournir jusqu'à la fin de la semaine de nouveau manuscrit [...]" ("Enclosed is the biography you asked for. It was written by Longuet [i.e., the journalist Charles Longuet] but he does not need to be mentioned. I have added one of my photos, the reproduction of which in 'Capital' is very poor. My state of health does not allow me to work more than a few hours a day. Hence the lack of a manuscript for M. Lahure. Still, he receives proofs that already include part of leaf 32 today. After having sent them, there will be no reason not to publish fasc. V and VI. I hope to present him with the new manuscript by the end of the week [...]"). - With old note of inventory..

Meanwhile M. Lahure has received the last proofs on September 8th. He has everything and more of what he does not need to publish instalments 5 and 6. So why is he not proceeding? I think his actions are highly impolitic, and I am obliged to you for informing me about the reasons for the delay. In Berlin, in the better informed circles, the fusion is considered a lost cause and the restoration of the monarchy in France a dream never to be accomplished [...]"). - Marx alludes to the attempt of a monarchic fusion undertaken by the count of Paris, Head of the House of Orléans, next to the count of Chambord, legitimist suitor. - Written in a small, close hand. With a notarial inventory mark..

The King's chances are more than dubious; but even if he returns, France will not be lost. By the way, it is M. Thiers' politics that caused this catastrophe, and if France escapes from it, it will be thanks to the absurd hecticness of the men of the moral order and to the hesitations and scruples of the child prodigy, also known as 'the child of Europe' [...]". - Marx alludes to Henri d'Artois, the Legitimist pretender to the throne of France between 1844 and 1883. After the collapse of the Second Empire under Napoleon III, his claim to the throne was supported by both Legitimists and Orléanists. However, Henri's insistence on the abandonment of the tricolour flag led to his losing the throne and to the establishment of the Third Republic. - With old inventory note. Small waterstain to upper left-hand corner, not touching text; two tiny marks from a paper clip, affecting a single letter..

Therefore he has to be paid the rest of the 1500 frs which I have advanced (to M. Lachâtre) for his payment. My health is nearly restored and M. Lahure will soon receive a good part of the manuscript [...]"). - With a notarial inventory mark. Tiny holes; lower margin slightly frayed..

Engels had warned Jottrand that he might have to leave Belgium and thus would be unable to serve; his suggested replacement was Marx. Indeed, on the 30th of September, Engels officially wrote to Jottrand that circumstances would require his absence: "I therefore request you to call on a German democrat resident in Brussels to participate in the work of the committee charged with organising a universal democratic society. I would take the liberty of proposing to you one of the German democrats in Brussels whom the meeting, had he been able to attend it, would have nominated for the office which, in his absence, it honoured me by conferring upon myself. I mean Mr Marx, who, I am firmly convinced, has the best claim to represent German democracy on the committee. Hence it would not be Mr Marx who would be replacing me there, but rather I who, at the meeting, replaced Mr Marx [...]" (cf. MEGA III.2, p. 110). On the same day, he advised Marx of the content of his letter to Jottrand, adding: "I had in fact already agreed with Jottrand that I would advise him in writing of my departure and propose you for the committee. Jottrand is also away and will be back in a fortnight. If, as I believe, nothing comes of the whole affair, it will be Heilberg’s proposal that falls through; if something does come of it, then it will be we who have brought the thing about. Either way we have succeeded in getting you and, after you, myself, recognised as representatives of the German democrats in Brussels, besides the whole plot having been brought to a dreadfully ignominious end" (cf. p. 105). Under the influence of Marx, the Brussels Democratic Association would soon become one of the principal hubs of the international democratic movement, and the present letter constitutes Marx's formal introduction to its president, Jottrand. Notably, Marx included with his letter the manuscript of a piece he had written for Engels's "Northern Star" as well as his recently published "Poverty of Philosophy", an attack on Proudon’s "Philosophy of Poverty" and a pivotal work in Marx’s thinking. Here, Marx memorably described his opponent as "petit bourgeois" - an epithet which resounded in all later Communist literature. Marx’s book paved the way for the Communist Manifesto, written between December 1847 and January 1848. - Marx dated the letter "2 octobre" from his Brussels address in the rue d’Orléans; the letter is erroneously docketed "1848" in another hand. Vertical and horizontal folds, but well-preserved..

- The first livraison of the French edition had appeared in August 1872, the second was delayed until early February 1873. In January 1872, Marx and Lachatre had not even signed their publication contract. Although Marx was not usually prone to misdating letters at the beginning of the year (a lapse more common in Engels's letters), he was at that moment seriously overworked with revising Roy's translation for Lachatre's ongoing publication, and simultaneously completing the revised second German edition for his publisher Otto Meissner in Hamburg. Quite recently he had complained to his correspondent Friedrich Adolph Sorge, "Because of the French translation, which makes me more work than if I had to do it without the translator, I am so overworked that I have not been able to write to you" (21 Dec. 1872), and still a month after the present letter, he wrote to Friedrich Bolte in very similar vein that "the revision of the French translation is causing me more work than if I had done the whole translation myself" (12 February 1873). - Slightly wrinkled and slight edge damage. Recipient's note to upper margin..