Marx-Engels Correspondence 1872

Karl Marx to Ludwig Kugelmann, 9 July 1872


Source: Karl Marx, Letters to Dr Kugelmann (Martin Lawrence, London, undated). Scanned and prepared for the Marxist Internet Archive by Paul Flewers.


Dear Kugelmann

My best thanks for the gift of £15 for Jennychen. I have worked myself so hard that today (in two hours) I am leaving London with Engels for four or five days, and going to the sea (Ramsgate). From the date of my return until 2 September (the International Congress at the Hague) I shall have my hands more than full, but from then on I shall again be more free. But this freedom will only begin in the middle of September, because I shall myself go to the Hague.

Perhaps we could see each other later (that is, you could see me, for I would not be safe in Germany).

Adio
Yours
Karl Marx

As soon as the first instalments (German or French) are out, you will of course receive them. [1] I am highly dissatisfied with Meissner. [2] He has led me by the nose – first overworked me due to the sudden and unexpected haste with which he announced the second edition (end of November 1871); then lost months and let the best time slip by. He is a wretched little philistine.

To punish Meissner it would be good if you were to write him, on the pretext of wanting to know when the ‘first’ instalment will finally appear. You can then remark, quite in passing, that from my last letters it seemed to you that I am very embittered against Meissner and very dissatisfied with him; what is the reason for that? It is not my usual manner! The fellow has really annoyed me very much by his ‘if you don’t come today, come tomorrow’ manner.


Notes

1. The instalments of the second German and first French edition of Capital – Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute.

2. Otto Karl Meissner (1819-1902) – Hamburg publisher who brought out Marx’s Capital and a number of other works by Marx and Engels – Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute.