Marx-Engels Correspondence 1871
Source: MECW Volume 44, p. 152;
First Published: in Russian, in Minuvshiye gody, No. 1, St Petersburg, 1908.
Dear Sir,
I shall be happy to see to the ‘first chapter’, but I cannot start work on it for another two weeks. A period of illness lasting eight weeks has piled up work which has to be dealt with first. I shall then also send you a list of minor corrections.
As to the continuation of my work, the report of our friend [Hermann Lopatin] is based on a misunderstanding. I have decided that a complete revision of the manuscript is necessary. Moreover, even now a number of essential documents are still outstanding, which will eventually arrive from the United States.
*Our friend must return to London from his commercial expedition. I have received news from the correspondents of the firm for which he travels, from Switzerland and elsewhere. The business will be ruined if he defers his return, and he himself will be disabled for all time to do any further service to the firm. The competitors of the firm are informed, are looking about for him and will ensnare him with their intrigues. *
My best thanks for the various Russian books which you were so kind as to send me. All arrived safely. The other economic writings of the author would be very welcome to me (the one of John Stuart Mill I already have).
Despite my illness I have just published an address [The Civil War in France] about 2 sheets long. How to send it to you?
Since I very often travel and hence am not at home, please send all letters, etc., to my friend A. Williams, [Marx’s pseudonym] Esq. (no second envelope necessary). He lives in my house, so use the same address: 1 Maitland Park Road, Chalk Farm, London, N. W.
Yours sincerely,
M.