[Marx, Karl / Engels, Friedrich].MareMagnum
86 428 résultats
8vo (205 x 137 mm). 23 pp., 1 blank p. (after which are bound 20 blank leaves). Contemporary marbled half cloth with giltstamped spine rules and title "Marx, Manif. und Katech". The founding document of communism: a previously unknown copy of the extremely scarce first issue of the first edition, owned by a Rhenish councillor of justice in the 1860s. - Of this first printing, only 27 copies are known worldwide: the 26 enumerated in Kuczynski's census and one more, sold in Hamburg in 2001. So rare is it that Kuczynski's statement, made in 1995, today requires almost no qualification: "In vain will specimens of the first edition of the 'Manifesto' be sought in the world's great libraries. Neither the Library of Congress in Washington nor the Lenin Library in Moscow, neither the British Museum in London nor the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris, not the Vatican's Bibliotheca Apostolica nor Berlin's Staatsbibliothek own a copy. All that is left is held by specialist historical libraries or archives, was acquired in passing with posthumous papers or bought and sold by private collectors" (cf. p. 78). - Previous to this copy, only four examples passed through the international postwar book trade: that formerly in the collection of Salman Schocken (Kuczynski B6c: Hauswedell 211 [1976], lot 574 = Christie's Paris, 2008, lot 12); that of Eduard Wiss (B4-6b: Sotheby's 1986, lot 159 = Christie's 1991, lot 314); the Rehdiger copy (B5b: Sotheby's 2006, lot 93); and a copy unknown to Kuczynski (Hauswedell 356 [2001], lot 428). Excepting the Schocken copy, which was acquired by the British Library, none of these recently-surfaced specimens went to institutional collections, and to this date the BL remains the only major research library in the world that has succeeded in acquiring the much-coveted first edition of what is universally admitted to be "one of the outstanding political documents of all times" (PMM). Even the great Karl Marx exhibition held in 2018 at China's National Museum in Beijing to mark the 200th anniversary of Marx's birth, as well as the Chinese National Library's 2021 exhibition, dedicated specifically to the Communist Manifesto and co-hosted by the CPC's Zhejiang Provincial Committee, were unable to source a copy, although the 2021 exhibition showed no fewer than 306 versions of the book in 55 languages. - Quite insignificantly and evenly browned throughout due to paper stock. Pages 7-10 trimmed fairly closely at the lower edge by the binder's knife, leaving the last line of page 7 slightly shaved (minimal loss but still legible) and descenders of "g" and "z" barely touched on page 8. Minute paper abrasion to the word "aufgehoben" in the last line of page 14; the printed letters transferred to the opposite blank margin. A small browned rectangle in the gutter of pp. 14/15 (ca. 3.5 cm), apparently due to formerly inserted small slip of paper; light offsetting from the original ribbon bookmark on pp. 18/19. Altogether in excellent condition, showing the characteristics of variant B4-6 as called for by Kuczynski: 23 pages, p. 17 numbered correctly, misprint "heraus beschwor" in the last line of p. 6; cover variant undeterminable (but traces of the original green wrapper's colour are evident in the gutter of the title). Tantalizingly, the entirely contemporary binding's spine title reads "Marx, Manif[est] und Katech[ismus]": an uncanny echo of the work's catechetical form as originally envisaged by its authors, before Engels, in November 1847, suggested the word be abandoned in favour of "Manifesto". Is this a mere misreading of the title by the bookbinder - or was he possibly himself a member of the "Bund der Kommunisten" who was acquainted with the genesis of the work and Engels's "Communist Confession of Faith", as the draft version of the Manifesto was called?. - Provenance: from the library of the Elberfeld district court councillor and justice Peter Kremer with his autograph ownership in blue ink to the flyleaf, noting the edition's rarity even then: "Selten. // P. Kremer / Elberf. 14/3. [18]63". Latterly in a Rhenish private collection. Andreas no. 1 & pp. 11f. Kuczynski, Das kommunistische Manifest (Trier, 1995), p. 87, variant Bu23 B4-6. Rubel p. 63, no. 70.1. ME-Erstdrucke p. 14, no. (1). PMM 326. Auvermann/Reiss/Sauer p. 13. Adams p. 50.
Tall quarto (277 x 194 mm). Contemporary black quarter roan, dark brown pebble-grain cloth over boards, green page marker. 2 engraved title pages, 1 engraved portrait frontispiece with autograph, facsimile autograph letter from Marx to the publisher, dated 18 March 1872, with Lachatre's reply to verso, engraved head- and tailpieces. Text in two columns. First edition in French, first issue, a fine presentation copy, inscribed by Marx to the Frankfurt banker Sigmund Schott, with whom Marx exchanged ideas central to his philosophies and work: "Mr Sigmund Schott, de la part l'auteur, Londres, 3 Novembre 1877" to the first engraved title page. Presentation copies of Capital are exceptionally rare, with only seven others having been offered at auction in the last 60 years, just two of those being the first edition in French as here. Sigmund Schott was a German bank director and journalist. He was also a literary critic, bibliophile, and corresponded with the some of the most important intellectual figures of the epoch. In certain editions of Marx's correspondence, Schott was misidentified as the German politician (1818-1895), with whom he shared the same name. As a result, the importance of the relationship between the young banker and the philosopher has perhaps been underexposed. Schott and Marx wrote to one another on a number of occasions over several months, and in the letter that originally accompanied the present volume - and bears the same date as the inscription: 3 November 1877 - Marx details his approach to constructing Capital. "Dear Sir," Marx begins. "My best thanks for the packages. Your offer to arrange for other material to be sent to me from France, Italy, Switzerland, etc. is exceedingly welcome, although I feel reluctant to make undue claims on you. I don't at all mind waiting, by the by, nor will this in any way hold up my work, for I am applying myself to various parts of the book in turn. In fact, privatim, I began by writing Capital in a sequence (starting with the 3rd, historical section) quite the reverse of that in which it was presented to the public, saving only that the first volume - the last I tackled - was got ready for the press straight away, whereas the two others remained in the rough form which all research originally assumes." Marx then goes on to mention the volume now offered: "I enclose a photograph herewith, because the copy of the French edition that goes off to you at the same time as this letter only contains a very far from flattering likeness done from a London photograph by a Parisian artist. Your most obedient Servant, Karl Marx." This letter, so frequently referenced in critical treatments of Capital, not only sheds light on the genesis of one of the most significant philosophical works to emerge in the last two centuries, but also underscores the author's openness and perhaps even his humour. Additionally, it offers an important contextual background for the presentation copy at hand. Given the nature of other examples of correspondence between the two men, it would seem that Schott and Marx regularly exchanged ideas pertaining to banking and social economy. In a letter sent from London, and dated 29 March 1878, Marx wrote to Schott: "I have, though somewhat belatedly, obtained Volume IV (Industrieactien) of the Saling, to which you so kindly drew my attention. I did not wish to reply to your letter until I had at length had time to run through the thing, and have found it very useful… Finally, I have one more thing to ask of you, namely to be so kind, provided it is not too time-consuming, as to let me have a list of the names of Perrot's published writings on the subject of joint-stock companies, etc." Given the tenor of this letter, it would seem that Marx quite relied on Schott for information relating to the financial theories of the day, and that Schott was eager to supply Marx with literature relevant to his work. Le Capital was published in France in 44 "livraisons" between August 1872 and May 1875. Marx began revising Capital for the second German edition in December 1871, which was also the month in which Lachâtre agreed to publish a French edition. In January 1872 Marx recruited Joseph Roy to prepare a French translation and concluded a publishing agreement with Lachâtre. As well as making important revisions for the second German edition, Marx began "to revise, indeed rewrite, the translation" (Draper, p. 174) over the next three years. While the second German edition was published in 1873, Marx continued to exert strict control over the French edition, making additions and corrections to the galley proofs for the parts even as they were being published (Draper, p. 190). He was very clear about its unique value as distinct from the second German edition and strongly advised that even those familiar with the German language editions consult the French edition for further accuracy. For this reason these changes were "taken into account when at length the first English translation, by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling, appeared in London, in 1887, four years after Marx's death, under the editorship of Engels" (PMM). When the final fascicule was printed in November 1875, the complete set was published in 10,000-11,000 copies. From certain indications found in the correspondence of Marx, it seems likely that the French government, who must have frowned upon the appearance of Das Kapital in French, tried to prevent its publication, which for a certain time was interrupted by the authorities. When the publication was finally completed, rumours abounded that its sale was to be forbidden and the publisher Lachâtre hesitated to sell copies. As noted, any presentation copy of Capital is exceedingly rare. - The volume present here ranks among the finest of these presentation copies. The correspondence surrounding it yields a particularly unique and significant sense of historical context, offering an important point of association related to one of the most significant works on economic philosophy, in the translation which many consider to be the definitive text of Capital as authorised by Marx. - Bookplate of Sigmund Schott to front pastedown and his ownership signature to front free endpaper, "Sigmund Schott, Roedelheim". - Spine and corners professionally repaired; a few small tears to a few edges, not obscuring text. Paper strips used to guard and reinforce a few leaves. Contents lightly foxed and toned, but still a very good copy. Draper ST/M15. Einaudi 3770. Rubel 634. Cf. Hal Draper, The Marx-Engels Chronicle, vol. I. New York: Schocken Books, 1985. PMM 359.
A collection of 83 works in 35 volumes. Mostly 8vo. A large, wide-ranging collection of extremely rare, early Marxist, socialist, and anarchist publications, forming the private library of the Alsatian engineer and socialist Charles Keller, best known for beginning (though not completing) the first French translation of Marx's "Kapital". Indeed, the collection includes Keller's personal copy of the 1867 German first edition, with his characteristic red and blue pencil markings and occasional translator's annotations in the margins. His library is rich in works on the International Workingmen's Association (the "First International"), of whose Paris section Keller was a member; he participated as a delegate in the Second Congress of the League of Peace and Freedom at Berne. Keller's library includes a considerable number of excessively rare socialist pamphlets from the 1840s to 1870s (some inscribed to him), spanning the periods of the Second Republic and the Second Empire. They include many works of utopian socialism, Fourierism, and Proudhonism, but also anarchist works and the first published account of Devil's Island. In 1871, Keller was a member of the Paris Commune, the writings of which constitute another important focus of his collection. After being injured fighting on the barricades, he escaped to Basel. Keller had been an early associate of Elie Reclus and Mikhail Bakunin, and it is little surprise that when the conflict between anarchist and Marxist factions in the IWA came to a head after the fall of the Commune, ending in a schism between the two wings at the 1872 Hague Congress, it was the Bakunist, anti-Marxist faction with which Keller sided. This "anarchist" First International of St. Imier based itself in Jura, Switzerland, where Keller took exile, establishing himself as a writer of workers' songs. His song "Le droit du travailleur" (also known as "La Alsacienne" or "La Jurassienne"), published in 1874, became highly popular with its forceful refrain: "Ouvrier, prends la machine, / Prends la terre, paysan!" (Nettlau, p. 61). Keller eventually returned to France after the amnesty of 1880, settling in Nancy, where he continued his work as a songwriter and poet under the pseudonym "Jacques Turbin". His ongoing interest in political radicalism and the social upheavals of the Third Republic is obvious from his library's numerous anarchist and socialist publications from the 1890s and early 1900s, including several works on the Dreyfus affair. It may be telling of Keller's personal charm that in spite of his Bakunist apostasy he managed to remain on good terms with the Marx family (cf. J.-P. Lefebvre, "La première traduction française du Capital", in: La Pensée 233 [May/June 1983], pp. 85-99, at p. 87). - Most bindings rather rubbed with some chipping to wrappers, but well-preserved on the whole. Some items with Keller's signature on the cover or author's inscription; many with Keller's markings and annotations, providing a rare opportunity to glimpse authentic examples of what Bertolt Brecht famously termed "Questions of a Worker Who Reads". - Detailed individual descriptions are available upon request.
8vo. 8 pp. Disbound; Japanese paper spine. Stored in custom-made red half morocco solander case. The only known copy of this founding document of communism, the final stepping stone towards the Communist Manifesto. The eight-page leaflet is a circular addressed to the “Bund der Kommunisten” (“Communist League”) by the participants of its second and final congress. The League, a revolutionary, socialist secret society, had been formed but a few months previously as a successor to the “Bund der Gerechten” (the “League of the Just”). The pioneering new name was adopted under the guidance of its new members Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels at the League’s first congress, held in London from June 2 through 9, 1847. Their ideas re-framed the League as an international organization with a coherent programme. Although the League would be formally disbanded in 1852, it is considered the precursor of the International Workingmen’s Association, the first Marxist political party, and the nucleus of all later communist parties. - The League’s second congress was held in Brussels from November 29 to December 8, half a year after the first. On both occasions the respective accounts were published under the heading "Der Congreß an den Bund": the former on June 9 and the present, latter one on December 15 (“1848” being a misprint for 1847). No copies of either of these two publications are recorded in library catalogues or in the usual bibliographical reference works. Only one or two copies of the circular of the First Congress are known: one in the estate of the Hamburg socialist and “Bund” member Joachim Friedrich Martens (SUB Hamburg, acquired in 1912); the other, apparently, in the Stiftung Archiv der Parteien und Massenorganisationen der DDR im Bundesarchiv (formerly in the Institut für Marxismus-Leninismus beim Zentralkomitee der SED, but not currently listed in the SAPMO’s catalogues). While this first circular was republished in 1969 (in Bert Andréas’s collection "Gründungsdokumente des Bundes der Kommunisten"), the present circular of the Second Congress has so far remained unknown to scholarship. As the Bund was still a secret society, the first circular was pseudonymously signed “Heide (Sekretär)” and “Karl Schill (Präsident)”, standing for Wilhelm Wolff and Karl Schapper, respectively. While the name of Schapper, the president, is given undisguised in the present second circular, it may therefore be more than a simple typographical error that the secretary’s name is here rendered as “J. Engels”. - In his article "On the History of the Communist League", written and published in 1885, nearly four decades after the event, Engels provides what has become the received version of the genesis of the Communist Manifesto: “[at the Second Congress Marx] expounded the new theory in a fairly long debate [...] All contradiction and doubt were finally set at rest, the new basic principles were unanimously adopted, and Marx and I were commissioned to draw up the Manifesto”. It is reasonable that Engels’s account should be a retrospective condensation of a more complicated process, albeit one of which few contemporary documents have survived. Interestingly, the use of the term "Manifest der kommunistischen Partei" is not entirely consistent throughout the circular: it is stated that a work so titled, which was to replace the "Communist Creed" passed at the First Congress, had already been compiled, drafted, translated into various languages, and even enacted (p. 1 f.), but had yet to be published. Also, it was decided at the Congress that such a "Manifesto" should appear annually in various languages (p. 7). The "Manifesto" of 1847 is said to have been drafted by taking into account all suggestions submitted by members of the League (p. 7); it is also said already to have given the Communist movement its proper expression (p. 2). The present circular as here published is referred to as the "organ of the League in its new appearance" (p. 8), and the forthcoming issue thereof is promised to contain the text of the Manifesto, which all subscribers are asked to disseminate as widely as possible, as it is to embody a brief summary of the Party’s position and will serve as a guideline to the Party’s propaganda, proving to the world that the communists are aware of their own position, as of those of all other proletarian parties (p. 8). - These passages shed new light on the development of the famous text, fleshing out Engels’s compressed narrative. And yet his account remains fundamentally accurate: at the Second Congress Marx took on the assignment to develop the Communist Manifesto into a publishable text, working from whatever sources or previous drafts he may have had, and together with Engels completed the task within several weeks. This December 15 publication, giving the final account of the plans and decisions of the League before the publication of the "Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei" two months later, just in time for the February Revolution of 1848, must be regarded as a founding document of Communism, recording the very moment when the great motor of the Manifesto was ignited. - It is very likely that this circular, the only known specimen in the world, was originally in the collection of a revolutionary who was - at least for a time - close to Marx: previously bound up with a collection of pamphlets apparently assembled by a German radical democrat in English exile (arguably Karl Blind, 1826-1907), including a first edition of "Herr Vogt" with Marx’s autograph corrections, it was removed from this volume for conservational reasons and is now stored within an acid-free portfolio. Not in Rubel, Stammhammer, Erstdrucke Marx Engels etc. No copies recorded in OCLC or KVK. Not in the 700-page catalogue of the books owned by Marx and Engels published in MEGA.
8vo and 12mo. 11 volumes, mostly in unsophisticated wrappers, stored loosely in contemporary green cloth covers (138 x 205 mm) and preserved within a green half morocco solander case. Unique collection of eleven early, extremely rare publications by Marx and Engels, including English, Italian and Polish translations of the Communist Manifesto, Russian and Spanish translations of "Misère de la philosophie", as well as English and Italian editions of "Discours sur la question du libre échange". From the personal collection of Karl Marx's youngest daughter Eleanor ("Tussy") Marx (1855-98), the companion of the socialist Edward Aveling. One of the works in this collection bears her autograph ownership on the title page, while three others are inscribed to her, one by Friedrich Engels. An outstanding ensemble.
8vo. (VIII), 178 pp. (without the errata leaf). (Bound after) II: The same. Der Achtzehnte Brumaire des Louis Bonaparte. Zweite Ausgabe. Hamburg, Otto Meißner, 1869. VI, 98 pp. Contemporary half calf with marbled covers. Stored in custom-made red half calf solander case with giltstamped spine. Very rare first edition of Marx's famous text, directed against Pierre Joseph Proudhon and the utopian socialists, which led to a long and bitter feud between the authoritarian and the libertarian-anarchist wing. The half title bears Marx's autograph inscription to Anna Vivanti, née Lindau: "Madame Vivanti / Hommage de l'auteur. / Londres, 2 Marx 1872" (the final digit is slightly trimmed by the binder). Anna Vivanti (1828-80), a sister of the well-known German critic, writer and democrat Paul Lindau, had in 1853 married the wealthy silk merchant Anselmo Vivanti, an Italian revolutionary exiled in Britain. The families had known each other for a while: on Christmas Eve 1868 Jenny Marx had described Madame Vivanti in a letter to her sister Laura as "a strange little lady, ugly, deformed, but full of life and spirits [...] She is married to an Italian and is an ardent admirer of Dante, whose poetry she knows by heart. She reminded me so much of the woman Balzac depicts in his Recherche de l'Absolu" (Moscow Russian State Archive for Social and Political History, fond 7, opis 1, delo 11/3). In March 1870 Marx's daughter Jenny had been invited to Norwood to attend a function given by Madame Vivanti, and the 25-year old had a great success with a Shakespearean recitation; later that same year, in October, Anselmo, Anna and their little daughter Luisa had stayed with the Marxes in Hampstead. In 1872 Anna repeatedly tried to solicit from Marx articles for her brother's journal "Die Gegenwart". On 21 March 1872 she thanked Marx for his gift of the book: "[...] I would like to write you a few words about this exceptional book 'Misère de la Philosophie', which I am not a little proud to own, but I have a dreadful cold which makes my head heavy and dumb; also, I would fear to monopolize your valuable time with my silly writing [...]" (translated from German, IISG, D VIII 40 [12073]). - Bound first is the first independent printing of Marx's "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon", originally published in the May 1852 issue of "Die Revolution". That both works were thus bound together for Anna Vivanti is evident from the binder's pencilled instructions on the final page of the "Misère": "Vivanti / ½ pelle". After Anna's death in 1880 the volume must have ended up in Milan with her widower Anselmo, who died there in 1890 soon after returning to his native country (previously, the widely admired hero of the Risorgimento had long served as President of the New York Chamber of Commerce). Four years later, the philosopher and socialist Antonio Labriola (1843-1904), one of the first propagandists of Marxism in Italy, acquired the volume for 25 lire at a Milan auction, as he reported to Engels in a letter of 3 August 1894: "Ho qui un volume legato, comprato a Milano auzione £25. Contiene oltre al 18 Brumaio, Misère d. l. Ph. originale, esemplare con dedica di Marx a Madame Vivanti (?) 2 (o 4) marzo 1873 (o 72, non chiaro)". It is this letter that led the editors of the Marx-Engels Gesamtausgabe falsely to assume that it was a copy of the "Eighteenth Brumaire" which Marx had inscribed to Madame Vivanti (cf. MEGA I, 11, p. 705). - Corners slightly bumped, but very finely preserved altogether. Both works somewhat browned, the first work more so, with some brownstaining to the title page and traces of an erased ownership stamp (possibly that of Labriola or a previous owner?). Contemporary pencil underlinings in the "Misère", perhaps reading notes by Anna Vivanti. One of the few copies of a Marx work known to have been inscribed by the author to a woman; among other female recipients of inscriptions by Marx are Luise Weydemeyer and Caroline Schoeler ("Das Kapital") as well as Natalja Utina (also the "Misère", with the author's corrections). Marx-Engels Erstdrucke 11 & 22. Rubel 55 & 215. Goldsmiths' 35456.
Folio (300 x 406 mm). Italian manuscript on vellum and paper. 233 ff., text in two columns of 50 to 56 lines, ornate lettering. The first 216 ff. consist of quires of 6 ff., each comprising 2 outer leaves of vellum in which are inserted 4 ff. of paper. The last 17 ff. have 7 vellum leaves. Two additional vellum leaves for the endpapers. Numerous finely drawn red and blue initials and 38 initials and colour and gilt. Bound in early 18th century full vellum. First part (of two) of Bartolus's commentary on the Infortiatum, the second part of the Digest or Pandects. The subjects under discussion in this part include matrimonial law, divorce, dowries, guardianship, wills, and intestate succession. This early 15th century manuscript is finely illuminated with initials in colours and gilt; the opening initial shows a jurist handing a scroll to a woman. The manuscript is remarkable not only for the additional commentary provided in the margins by a contemporary scholar, but also for the numerous occasional drawings he has casually sketched in the margins, often of a whimsical and sometimes drastic nature: there are several expressive caricatures and grotesque faces; a passage discussing a recovery of the dowry following a divorce shows a man plunging a dagger into the head of his (ex-)wife. - Explicit on fol. 229: ''Explicit prima pars lecture Bartoli super Inforciato. Deo gratias et beatissime Marie ejusque genetrici et virgini Katerine''. The 1406 date on the binding does not appear in the explicit and may be taken from the 5 pages of glosses and text added at the end. - Bartolus de Saxoferrato (1313/14-57), who taught at Perugia and Pisa, was one of the principal authors in the transmission of Roman law. His commentaries on the Code of Justinian were frequently republished until the 17th century. The Manuscripta Juridica database hosted by the Max-Planck-Institut für europäische Rechtsgeschichte lists about 40 copies of this first part preserved in public libraries up to the year 1500. - Margins a bit trimmed (occasionally touching marginalia). Provenance: from the manuscript collection of Thomas Phillipps, with his MS no. 4420 on the front vellum flyleaf; sold at Sotheby's sale of his collection held in June 1908 (lot 68). Catalogus librorum manuscriptorum in bibliotheca D. Thomae Phillipps (Middle Hill, 1837), 4420.
8vo. XII, 784 pp. Slightly later half cloth with marbled covers. Stored in custom-made cloth case with gilt spine label. First edition: a fine copy of one of the most influential books ever published. The exceedingly rare first volume was the only one to be completed by Marx in his lifetime, while the second and third volumes were completed posthumously by Engels from Marx's papers (1885 and 1894). "The history of the twentieth century is Marx's legacy [...] Within one hundred years of his death half the world's population was ruled by governments that professed Marxism to be their guiding faith. His ideas have transformed the study of economics, history, geography, sociology, and literature" (Wheen). "Marx himself modestly described 'Das Kapital' as a continuation of his 'Zur Kritik der politischen Oekonomie', 1859. It was in fact the summation of a quarter of a century's economic studies, mostly in the Reading Room of the British Museum" (PMM). - Stamp of the Würzburg Volksbildungsverein on title page (slightly trimmed at bottom during rebinding ca. 1900). Occasional slight staining to edges near beginning, not touching text; a few pencil annotations by an economic scholar, ca. 1900. Altogether a tight, well-preserved specimen. PMM 359. Rubel 633. Wheen, Marx, p. 299 ff. Books That Made Europe, p. 238.
8vo (149 × 222 mm). VI, (2), 191, (1) pp. With 2 marginal marks and 4 manuscript corrections in Marx's distinctive hand written in black ink, very slightly cropped when bound into the volume. Near contemporary half-cloth binding (pebble grained cloth and marbled boards, spine ruled in blind and lettered "Ecrits divers" in gilt). Stored in custom-made red half morocco solander case. First edition of Marx's longest polemical work, which he took the best part of a year away from the writing of "Das Kapital" to complete, this copy containing the author's autograph corrections. Levelled at the polical writer and democrat of 1848, Karl Vogt (1817-95), the book is an answer to the slanders against himself, Engels and their supporters which had appeared in Vogt's 1859 pamphlet, "Mein Prozess gegen die Allgemeine Zeitung". A former member of the German pre-parliament, Vogt had become professor of geology in Geneva in 1852. When in June 1859 the "Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung" circulated the rumour that he was a paid agent of Napoleon III, Vogt suspected, not without justification, that Marx's circle was behind the report. In fact, only in May had the Baden revolutionary and refugee Karl Blind privately revealed to Marx his knowledge of Vogt's entanglements (as here recounted on p. 58), and since Marx took no pains to be discreet about the matter, the story had quickly found its way into print; the feature in the Allgemeine Zeitung to which Vogt objected had merely reprinted an anonymous leaflet authored by Blind himself. Vogt sued the paper for libel, and the suit was tried at the Augsburg district court on 24 October 1859. No proof of the accusation was produced (against Marx's hopes, Blind - who had been called as a witness - denied all knowledge of the matter), and the charge was ultimately dismissed on technical grounds. Vogt exploited his moral victory by publishing the shorthand report of the court proceedings, bolstered with copious documents, so as to expose the communists as traitors and conspirators. Although Marx was already weary of the affair, he picked up the gauntlet: in this rebuttal of nearly two hundred pages, he answered "Vogt line for line and charge for charge [...] Marx spares neither wit nor invective in demolishing his opponent" (R. A. Archer, in the preface to his 1982 English translation). A fine example of Marx's talent for merciless satire as well as of his often prolix attention to detail, the book had little or no public effect: even when in 1871 the Paris Commune raided the government archives and produced proof that Vogt indeed had been in the pay of the Bonapartists, Marx's vindication escaped general notice. "An important historical document, and a classic example of irreconcilable political controversy" (cf. Sauer & Auvermann V, 2340). - In the present copy, Marx has made reading marks to pages 59 and 60, highlighting the name of Andreas Scherzer, an exiled radical journalist and protagonist of the London-based "German Workers' Educational Association". He further makes two corrections to the date events took place, one on page 155 (correcting "März" to "September"), the other on page 160 (changing "24" to "20"), and further corrects two errors on page 188 ("en exchange" to "en echange" and "du vieux hermite" to "le vieux hermite"). Bound with this famously overlong polemic, clearly once in the personal possession of Marx, are 15 additional brochures and pamphlets. They would appear to have been assembled by a German radical democrat in English exile; indeed, several of them were written by Karl Blind or reflect his known interests and associations, making it plausible that the present volume was made up for him. - Front joint weakened, corners worn, inner joints cracked but cords very firm; front free endpaper a little chipped along fore edge; final leaf of text with small portion torn away and repaired, affecting the last seven lines of text on the recto, with loss of approximately 30 letters (the missing text supplied in photocopy, errata on verso unaffected). Some light soiling, but generally very good. Marx-Engels Erstdrucke 26. Stammhammer I, 145, 22. Draper ST/M 51. Rubel 567.
8vo. 80 pp. First issue (no more published). In custom-made red half morocco solander case. First edition. This extremely rare collection includes the essay "Bemerkungen über die neueste preußische Censur-Instruction", published in 1843 in the Zurich "Anekdota", as well as some of Marx's articles about the Rhenish provincial diet which had been printed in the Rheinische Zeitung in 1842. Edited by Hermann Becker (also known as "Red Becker"), editor of the Westdeutsche Zeitung and member of the Communist League, this volume constitutes the first collection ever prepared of Marx's lesser writings. The publication was planned to encompass two volumes, but Becker's arrest on 19 June 1851 prevented the completion of the second volume: "Une seule livraison de cinq feuilles d'impression vit le jour en avril 1851. Ce fascicule n'eut pas le temps d'être connu du public; on ne sait d'ailleurs pas combien d'exemplaires en furent tirés par Becker. A peine était-il mis en circulation, que la police découvrit l'existence de la Ligue des communistes et se lança à la poursuite de ses membres restés en Allemagne. Or, Becker était du nombre et son arrestation mit fin à l'entreprise d'édition qu'il avait fondée avec l'espoir d'assurer la diffusion des oeuvres de Marx" (Rubel, p. 12). - Somewhat browned and stained; a few paper flaws to wrappers. Uncut and untrimmed as issued. Of the utmost rarity: KVK and WorldCat record no more than three copies in German institutional collections (Bundesarchiv; Bibliothek der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung; Universitäts- und Stadtbibliothek Köln); two others in Italy (Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli; Fondazione Lelio e Lisli Basso); no copy in trade records. Rubel 213 ter. OCLC 914749082. ICCU LO1\0626413.
8vo. (2), XIII, (3), 678 pp. Printed on very thick, heavy, vellum-like paper. Bound in a splendid, contemporary, Russian full diced calf binding with blindstamped and darker coloured rectangular "frames" to boards and to compartments of spine. Gilt title to spine. First edition, first issue in Russian, the first translation of "Das Kapital" into any language: a truly magnificent copy of an otherwise unknown deluxe edition printed on special, very heavy paper, making it about 30% thicker than the usual first edition copies. - Although Marx's other works were banned in Russia, the Tsarist censors passed "Das Kapital" as harmless on account of its length and complexity, and the book - rather unexpectedly - became an immediate success with the Russian intelligentsia in search of a theoretical model for industrializing their economically backward country. The press-run of 3000 copies was soon exhausted, and the ensuing ban on the book, when the board of censorship realized their error, prohibited the planned second edition (which was subsequently brought out in New York). The appearance on the market of any first edition has therefore become a great rarity. No mention of a deluxe edition is made at all in the vast bibliographical literature on "Das Kapital". While one could only speculate on the reason for preparing such a special edition, its number must have been extremely small, likely limited to no more than a handful of copies for a small, exclusive group - possibly to be sought among the young revolutionary intellectuals who had laboured for years to make possible the Russian translation, which soon was going to have such a profound effect on world history. This is the only such copy we have been able to locate. - A bit of wear to extremities and traces of faint dampstaining to boards. Inner front hinge slightly weak; the first few leaves with faint traces of slight dampstaining. Very light occasional brownspotting, otherwise fresh and crisp. Old Russian newspaper-clippings to endpapers. A uniquely produced specimen of one of the most influential books ever published. Marx-Engels Erstdrucke 33. Cf. PMM 359.
A total of 119 photographic portraits of 74 Communards, captioned in black ink by police officers. 63 & 56 photographs mounted on tabs and assembled in alphabetical order, bound in 2 contemporary half calf 12mo volumes on four raised bands with gilt titles to spines. Portraits are mainly by the photographer Ernest Appert (1830-90) and captioned on front, reverse, or both. An exceptional pocket-sized rogues' gallery showing Communards, for the use of Parisian police detectives on the manhunt, from the estate of Edmond Louis de Nervaux, director of the Sûreté générale at the French Ministry of the Interior from 1871 to 1874. Among the many great and lesser men here portrayed for their involvement in the uprising are Bakunin, "chef de l'Internationale", Prosper-Olivier Lissagaray, later the historian of the Commune and sometime fiancé of Marx's daughter Eleanor (Tussy) Marx, the painter Gustave Courbet ("grand, gros, voûté, marchant difficilement à cause de douleurs dans le dos, cheveux longs grisonnants, air d'un paysan goguenard, assez mal vêtu"), Henri Rochefort ("taille élevée, cheveux noirs frisés, barbe noire, teint pâle, traces de variole"), and Jules Vallès ("taille un peu au-dessus de la moyenne, barbe et cheveux noirs à reflets rouges, teint légèrement basané, peau un peu ridée, marche assez lourdement"). The formulaic description of face, hair, eyes etc. entirely mirrors the usage that was common even under the Ancien Régime and that was given full expression in the prisoner lists compiled during the mass incarcerations under the French Revolution's "Terreur". The more colourful (and frequently unflattering) annotations, however, reflect an increasing demand for a greater degree of individual detail that would eventually lead to Bertillon's anthropometric system of physical measurements. In the present albums, many of these notes amount to rather picturesque nutshell psychological sketches: "air quelque peu ahuri" (Albert Breuillé), "figure fatiguée" (Jean-Baptiste Édouard Millière), "air souffrant" (Tony Moilin), "figure très commune, nez un peu chafouin" (Trabucco), "cheveux et barbe blond filasse, air fiévreux, yeux malins légèrement bordés de rouge, porte plus souvent un pince-nez en argent que des lunettes" (Marc Amédée Gromier), "air très militaire" (Jaroslaw Dombrowski), "se tient très droit, tournure prétentieuse" (Gustave Maroteau), "vêtu généralement d'habits bourgeois, coiffé d'un chapeau de feutre mou brun" (Gustave Paul Cluseret), or "habituellement coiffé d'un chapeau tyrolien, un peu voûté" (Ferdinand Gambond). - Some pictures are in duplicate or even in triplicate, with the same annotations on the back, though often by another hand, and some Communards are the subject of several different portraits. Although three photographs are on the studio cardboard of E. Flamant and F. Clement, and one (that of Auguste Rogeard) is even reproduced from a publication, the vast majority - though unsigned - apparently are the work of Ernest Appert, a prominent Parisian photographer who long had portrayed in his studio the conservative élite and republican-minded politicians alike. As Sotteau Soualle demonstrated in her 2010 dissertation on Appert, the artist began to cultivate a close relationship with the French police and judiciary in 1870, after the failed January uprising. These contacts allowed him now to photograph the accused revolutionaries and members of the International, as well as their defense lawyers, and thus to assemble an even more encompassing portrait gallery of the French political world. There is little formal difference between Appert's studio and court sittings: even in the 1860s, Appert had developed his definitive, reduced style, consisting of a half-length portrait against a blank background - a design that was easily reproduced outside the studio and even in jails with the use of a chair and a white sheet of cloth (also, the resulting images lent themselves well to photomontage, another specialty of Appert's). Many of the insurgents, put on trial in July 1870 and later released, came to play important roles in the Commune of 1871; other prominent Communards without a police record nevertheless had had their portraits taken by Appert in earlier years. Hence, when the National Assembly cracked down on the Commune, they had a wealth of negatives in the photographer's archives on which to draw for compiling their lists of wanted men. The pocket-sized volumes were clearly intended to be carried by police detectives in the field, the duplicates ensuring that a portrait could always be handed out to an informer, if necessary. Appert's well-known portrait of Louis Auguste Blanqui is not present, as the man whom Marx identified as the leader the Commune lacked was already in jail (where he would stay until 1879). On the other hand, the police was on the lookout for Bakunin, who in fact was hiding in Switzerland and did not participate in the Commune. - Spines very lightly rubbed, but an extremely attractive, unique ensemble. A provenance note on the flyleaf, dated 1909, states that the owner inherited the set from his aunt, the widow of Edmond de Nervaux, a high-ranking police officer during the uprising who rose to Chief of Police in November 1871. Cf. Stéphanie Sotteau Soualle, "Ernest Appert (1831-1890), un précurseur d'Alphonse Bertillon en matière de photographie judiciaire?", in: Pierre Piazza, Aux origines de la police scientifique (Paris, 2011), pp. 54-69.
Tall 4to (250 x 175 mm). 20th-century red marbled calf by Brugalla, spine lettered in gilt, spine and boards panelled with single gilt fillet, red marbled endpapers, uncut and unopened. Engraved tailpieces. Exceptionally rare first edition in Spanish, an abridged translation of volume one "Das Kapital". Its scarcity is explained by the brittle, poor quality of the paper stock - the same used for printing Zafrilla’s newspaper - and its very small print run, thought to number no more than a thousand copies in total. - Pablo Correa y Zafrilla (1844-88) was a federalist, translator, and lawyer. He was professionally attached to the prestigious Colegio de Madrid, enjoyed a close friendship with Catalan federalist Francesc Pi i Margall, and was appointed a deputy of the Cortes Generales in 1873 during the First Spanish Republic. He was also the editor of La República, a newspaper which had announced its intention in early 1886 to publish a serialised translation of Capital, which would be delivered bimonthly to its subscribers. It was decided that the pages would be twice the size of the newspaper’s usual publications, to account for the length of Marx’s work and to prevent the individual parts from becoming too thick. Though he promised to work directly from the original German (1867), and said as much in his preface, Zafrilla actually based his translation on the first edition in French, translated by Joseph Roy and published in 44 livraisons by Lachâtre from 1872 to 1875 (cf. Ribas 1985 for a detailed analysis of the textual similarities between the French and Spanish text). - The first part of Zafrilla’s "El Capital" was sent to subscribers with a copy of the newspaper in February 1886 - the title-page reflects the year of first delivery, not final printing - and publication must have been completed by mid-1887, when La República was offering subscribers the option, for one peseta, of binding all the parts into one quarto volume in "elegantes tapas de tela" (elegant cloth covers). Non-subscribers could purchase all the parts, without cloth, for 60 cents; it is possible that the printed wrapper, dated 1887, which is sometimes mentioned in relation to Zafrilla's translation, was produced for this purpose. It is estimated, therefore, that the print run can have been no more than a thousand copies in total, with a few hundred of this amount reserved for subscribers, the rest being made available for separate purchase (Castillo, p. 93). An unknown remainder of these was apparently later bound up for La República to offer as gifts to new subscribers or those who renewed their subscription for a further six months, yet we have found no record of any other copy surviving (with the exception of that cited by Ribas, below). According to OCLC no library is known to possess "El Capital", and no other copies are recorded as having appeared at auction. Pedro Ribas, a renowned collector of Marxist literature, states that he has handled just one in his lifetime, that held at the Faculty of Law, University of Salamanca (p. 205). - Zafrilla’s translation received little to no comment in the contemporary press. When alluded to, it was dismissed as being imperfect and incomplete, particularly by El Socialista, the periodical founded by the Spanish Socialist Workers Party (PSOE) in 1886. Brief excerpts from Marx’s writings had been translated into Spanish before - beginning in 1872 when La Emancipación, the Spanish IWMA organ, published translations of Marx’s preface to the first German edition and his letter to Lachâtre in the French edition (Draper, Chronicle, 72:58) - but Zafrilla’s translation was the first concerted effort to present in full the message of "Das Kapital" to a Spanish audience. The present copy is a remarkable survival considering the complexity of its serialised publication. - Binder’s stamp of Emilio Brugalla (1902-85), the leading Spanish binder of the 20th century, to front free endpaper verso, dated 1937; bookseller’s ticket to rear free endpaper recto (Libreria Catalónia); tax stamps of the Spanish crown ("timbre 3 pe[se]tas 10 kil[o]s Madrid"), with their arms, to margins of 11 pages. Corners gently rubbed, contents browned and occasionally foxed, edges friable with some short tears, small area of dampstain to head of gutter of book block and dampstain to edges of half-title and title leaf, closed tear (3 cm) to fore-edge of leaf 8.1, a few closed tears and punctures to fore edge of 18.4. Overall a well-preserved copy of a fragile publication, finely bound. Not listed in the standard Marx bibliographies. Cf. Santiago Castillo, "Marxismo y Socialismo en el siglo XIX español", in Manuel Ortiz Heras, David Ruiz González, & Isidro Sánchez Sánchez (eds.), Movimientos sociales y estado en la España contemporánea (2001), pp. 81-126; Pedro Ribas, “La primera traducción castellana de El capital (1886-1887)”, in Cuadernos Hispano-Americanos, no. 420 (June 1985).
8vo. (4), 137, (1) pp. Original printed wrappers. First edition. From the collection of the French socialist and writer Paschal Grousset (1844-1909) with his autograph note on the title, repeated on the final page: "Ce Rapport est en entier l'ouevre de Karl Marx. Londres, Dec.bre 1874. Paschal Grousset". - In fact, scholarship today agrees that the text of the Conclusion was jointly edited by Marx and Engels in July 1873, to serve as the final chapter to this brochure which Engels and Lafargue produced according to a resolution at the Congress of the Hague. On the 26th of July 1873, Engels wrote to Sorge: "Lafargue et moi l'avons écrit ensemble, seule la conclusion est de Marx et de moi". - The Corsican-born Grousset was elected a member of the Paris Commune, serving on its Executive Committee and as Delegate for External Affairs. Deported to New Caledonia in 1872, he escaped via Australia, the U.S., and Britain, and it was during this period of exile that he penned the quoted lines in the present volume. Grousset returned to France after the 1880 amnesty and became a sometime collaborator of Jules Verne, as well as a Socialist Deputy for the 12th arrondissement of Paris. - Paper brittle and chipped in places, the printed wrapper more so; spine professionally repaired. Extremely rare. Rubel 726. Stammhammer I, 3.
8vo. (4), 75, (1) pp. Contemporary marbled half cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author: "Seinem Paul Singer Ld. 12.4.91. F. Engels." First edition of Engels's brochure against Brentano, inscribed in the week of publication to the Chairman of the Social Democratic Party, Paul Singer (1844-1911). - "This work consists of six chapters of exposition (in MEW 22:95-133) followed by a number of documents: excerpts from M’s Inaugural address (#M397) and from Capital, vol. 1; reprints of #M737 and #M738 (M’s replies to Brentano); the exchange between Eleanor Marx and Sedley Taylor in 1883-1884 (for which see Y. Kapp’s Eleanor Marx, 2:725); excerpt from #E602 (a preface to Capital by E); and finally the text of #E374 (which is not found elsewhere in MEW). Also reprinted in this work are documents by Brentano and his supporters" (Draper, The Marx-Engels Register). - Singer, orphaned at a young age, was a draper’s clerk, and together with his brother established the Singer ladies’ coat factory. "At first a supporter of J. Jacoby’s left liberals, he joined the Social-Democratic party in the early 1870s - secretly until 1878 when the Anti-Socialist Law was imposed; made large financial contributions. Elected to the Berlin city government (1883), he emerged as an outstanding administrator; elected to the Reichstag (1884); member of the party Central Committee (1887), its chairman (1890); also presidium member at international congresses; member (1890) of the International Socialist Bureau, Brussels. Singer was not a public figure but a capable administrator and organizer, who in politics followed Bebel’s lead; despite his notable practicality, he opposed Revisionism to the end" (Draper, The Marx-Engels Glossary, p. 193). - Engels received copies of the present pamphlet before 10 April 1891, and between April 10 and 15 he sent copies to Sorge, Fisher, Niewenhuis and other friends and correspondents, including the present copy to Singer, who on April 2 had written to Engels, reminding him to send Bebel greetings on his silver wedding anniversary. - Spine defective, remains of paper label to front board; dampstain to upper margin and a lesser stain to lower margin, central vertical crease, presumably caused by folding for mailing before binding; inscription lightly abraded, but still very legible; a very good copy with a splendid association. Rubel (Appendix) 111. Stammhammer I, 73, 13. Werchan et al., Das Werk von Marx und Engels in der Lit. der dt. Sozialdemokratie, no. 536. Draper E375.
8vo. 2 vols. in one. IV, 320 pp. IV, 288 pp. Contemporary half calf with gilt title "Anekdota von A. Runge" (!) to spine. First edition, comprising both volumes. Contains Marx's first political pamphlet, the anonymous "Bemerkungen über die neueste preußische Censurinstruction. Von einem Rheinländer" (in vol. I, p. 56-88). Another anonymous essay, "Luther als Schiedsrichter zwischen Strauß und Feuerbach" (II, 206-208), has also been attributed to Marx, though Feuerbach may also have been the author of this brief piece. - Marx had sent Ruge his manuscript of the "Bemerkungen" from Trier on 10 February 1842 as a submission to the "Deutsche Jahrbücher", asking him for the time being not to reveal the author's identity to anyone save the publisher. Indeed, the essay was not published there, but in Ruge's present collection of "Anekdota", printed in Switzerland and comprising such contributions as either had been not admitted by the Saxon censorship or which he had not even bothered to submit. - Published in January 1843, the "Anekdota" appeared at the very moment when the liberal, democratic-leaning German press was particularly vigorously suppressed. The book struck a sensational blow against the pettily bureaucratic, reactionary censorship in the German countries by unmasking specifically the Prussian and Saxon censors' bias against all progressive scholarship and writing (cf. I. Taubert/W. Schuffenhauer, Marx oder Feuerbach?, in: Beiträge zur Marx-Engels-Forschung [1975], p. 37). - Corners and extremeties bumped. Early 20th century stamps "V. Rehdigersche Stadtbibliothek Breslau" to reverse of title-page; "Stadtbibl. Breslau" on lower flyleaf. Erased stamps overpasted on versos of titles; faded stamps of "Dr. Richard Kohn, pract. Arzt, Breslau". Occasional slight foxing, but a very good copy altogether in its first binding. Rubel 27 & 28. Stammhammer II, 10. Friedlaender 35. MEGA I.1, 151-175.
8vo. 358, (2) pp. (including a single leaf of advertisements). With a lithographic folding map of Manchester. Contemporary half calf over pebbled cloth boards; giltstamped spine sympathetically repaired. White moirée endpapers. First edition of Engels' first book, written in his early twenties, with a three-page preface in English addressed "to the working classes of Great-Britain". Based on personal knowledge of the situation in Britain gained during the time he spent in 1842-43 at his father's factory in Salford, Engels exposed the horrific living conditions which the Industrial Revolution had entailed for workers in large industrial cities such as Manchester and Liverpool: mortality from disease was four times that in the surrounding countryside, and mortality from convulsions was ten times as high. Originally addressed to a German audience, the book is considered a classic account of the universal condition of the industrial working class during its time. It was not translated into English until 1887, as "The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844". - "Our image of Manchester capitalism, with the owners of the means of production enjoying their life unfettered by legal, organisational or moral restraints, is based on these descriptions by Engels" (cf. Bönig, p. 13). His book "made a crucial contribution [to the workers' self-empowerment] because it provided so detailed an account of their destitution, thus showing the newly arisen competitive capitalism in a new light that prompted them to take action themselves" (ibid., p. 15). - Even previous to their important meeting in the late summer of 1844, Marx had read and been profoundly impressed by Engels' article "Umrisse zu einer Kritik der Nationalökonomie" (Outline of a Critique of National Economy), from which Engels' 1845 book grew, as it had been published in February in the "Deutsch-Französische Jahrbücher", which Marx had co-edited. Engels' notion that political economy revealed bourgeois society's contradictions, which in turn pointed the way to their own overcoming, would provide the framework for the future direction of Marxist thought. - Hinges professionally repaired. Some light browning throughout, mainly confined to margins, but on the whole quite crisp and clean. A remarkably well-preserved copy. Stammhammer I, 72, 8. Marx-Engels Erstdrucke p. 10 (with illustration p. 8). Rubel p. 243, no. 18 ("338 p." in error). MEGA I, 4, 7-285. Jürgen Bönig, "Industrie 1.0 - Friedrich Engels und der Aufstand der schlesischen Weber 1844", in: Aus dem Antiquariat NF 19.1 (2021), pp. 7-15.
8vo. 2 vols. in one. IV, 320 pp. IV, 288 pp. Modern half calf. First edition, comprising both volumes. Contains Marx's first political pamphlet, the anonymous "Bemerkungen über die neueste preußische Censurinstruction. Von einem Rheinländer" (in vol. I, p. 56-88). Another anonymous essay, "Luther als Schiedsrichter zwischen Strauß und Feuerbach" (II, 206-208), has also been attributed to Marx, though Feuerbach may also have been the author of this brief piece. - Marx had sent Ruge his manuscript of the "Bemerkungen" from Trier on 10 February 1842 as a submission to the "Deutsche Jahrbücher", asking him for the time being not to reveal the author's identity to anyone save the publisher. Indeed, the essay was not published there, but in Ruge's present collection of "Anekdota", printed in Switzerland and comprising such contributions as either had been not admitted by the Saxon censorship or which he had not even bothered to submit. - Published in January 1843, the "Anekdota" appeared at the very moment when the liberal, democratic-leaning German press was particularly vigorously suppressed. The book struck a sensational blow against the pettily bureaucratic, reactionary censorship in the German countries by unmasking specifically the Prussian and Saxon censors' bias against all progressive scholarship and writing (cf. I. Taubert/W. Schuffenhauer, Marx oder Feuerbach?, in: Beiträge zur Marx-Engels-Forschung [1975], p. 37). - Contemporary Viennese ownership stamp to title page. Occasional slight foxing, but a very good copy altogether. Rubel 27 & 28. Stammhammer II, 10. Friedlaender 35. MEGA I.1, 151-175.
12mo. 48 pp. Original printed wrappers. Housed in a black quarter morocco slipcase. First edition of the parodic poem that includes Engels’ first published portrait of his future collaborator, Karl Marx. Extremely rare: no copy at auction, including German ones, since 1955; OCLC locates only four copies in libraries worldwide, all in Germany and Switzerland; no copy in the British Library, none in North America. - In spring 1839 Engels had read David Strauss's "Das Leben Jesu", and by winter 1840 had acquainted himself with Hegel's "Philosophy of History". By 1841 he was (like Karl Marx) a member of the Young Hegelian club known as "Die Freien". Although he had not yet formed a friendship with Marx, they were both breaking with the prevailing influence of Bruno Bauer and formulating their own positions. - Writing here in collaboration with Bauer’s younger brother Edgar, Engels achieves in this comic poem complex levels of satire and parody, both literary and philosophical. Engels' ironic use of parody, similar in form to Marx's use of Hegel as both the voice and the target of his satiric epigrams of 1837, was a popular mode among Young Hegelians at this time. As parody, it is itself an imitation of the parodistic style used by Bauer in 1841 to defend the radical Hegel in "Die Posaune des jüngsten Gerichts über Hegel, den Atheisten und Antichristen". Similarly David Strauss, in an earlier attack on Bauer, had used this form of ironic identification with the object of his criticism. The short title of Engels' satire, "Triumph des Glaubens", is reminiscent of a farce written in 1817 by Platen, entitled "Sieg der Gläubigen" (Victory of the Believers), which had satirized orthodox theology and revelation. Engels also employs Goethe's "Faust" to ambiguous effect, transforming the battle for Faust's soul between God and the devil into a battle between pietists and Left Hegelians for the soul of the philosopher Bauer. - Engels devotes eight lines of his poem to a caricature of Marx, describing him as "a swarthy chap from Trier" and emphasizing his furious energy. Shortly after this publication Engels escaped the inward-looking Young Hegelian circle by leaving Germany to work in his father's Manchester textile firm. However, he and Marx would later re-utilize this satiric form of parody in their first joint work, "Die heilige Familie" (The Holy Family), in 1845. - Wrappers very slightly soiled; a single wormhole through most of the work yet only occasionally touching a letter; a little very light foxing. An excellent copy of this very rare work in unrestored original condition. Marx-Engels Erstdrucke p. 7. Not in Rubel. Cf. Margaret A. Rose, Reading the Young Marx and Engels: Poetry, Parody, and the Censor (1978).
188785181S. n. | s. l. 1887 | divers | 11 pages sur 7 feuillets pour les manuscrits + 4 feuillets pour la transcription
Small 8vo (179 x 115 mm). 27, (1) pp. (collation: [A]8, [B]6 = 14 ff.). With a decorated rule on the title page and another above the colophon. Printed on machine-made wove paper. 20th century full red cloth. The very rare, and definitive, second authorized edition, the first to appear under the now canonical title "Das kommunistische Manifest", with a new preface by the authors that would remain a standard part of the book from this date on. Second in importance only to the original 23-page edition from 1848 (surreptitiously reprinted in 30 pages, with the same date, in 1850/51), this is the most important and influential edition of the Communist Manifesto ever to appear. - The present edition is often referred to as the 'Liebknecht edition' or 'Liebknecht offprint'. In the course of a trial against the socialist Wilhelm Liebknecht, who had agitated against the Franco-Prussian War, the Manifesto had been read in the third session and thus entered into the records as evidence - a fact that afforded the Communists an unexpected opportunity to legally publish the Manifesto in Germany as part of the official court records. The offprint, with independent page numbers, was published by Liebknecht's "Volkstaat" press with the new preface dated 24 June, somewhat grudgingly provided by Marx and Engels. "The offprint edition - which is historically labelled the 1872 edition - was actually produced in only a few copies plus a batch of a hundred sent to Engels himself [...] Engels sent copies of this edition around Europe, in response to requests, as a model for foreign editions and reprints. Thus this ghost-edition became the progenitor of many real ones" (Draper, The Marx-Engels Chronicle, pp. 179f., 34). - In the preface, Marx and Engels note relevant events from the Second Congress of the Communist League in London (November 1847) to the Paris Commune (1871), stating their wish that a revised edition might later appear with a more elaborated introduction that would explain the historical development since the first edition in 1848. In fact, the present preface would remain unchanged for many subsequent editions. "The importance of this edition is due to the preface contributed jointly by Marx and Engels. It was the first and last time that Marx looked back at the Manifesto. His reaction: 'A detail here and there might be improved [...] the Manifesto itself has become a historic document which we do not feel we have any right to alter'" (Adams). - Binding shows light wear to extremities and a few stains to the lower board. Paper somewhat browned as usual; professional repairs to both outer corners of title-page and inner margin, not affecting the text. Repaired paper flaw in p. 16 (ca. 22 x 5 mm) with minor loss of text. A good copy; the definitive edition of a truly revolutionary book: few works have had such an enormous influence on the course of world history, and the present edition shows it for the first time in its definitive form. Of the utmost scarcity; a single specimen in auction records (the Chimen Abramsky copy). Andréas locates only nine copies worldwide; another was sold through our house in 2019. Andréas no. 72. Kuczynski, Das kommunistische Manifest (Trier, 1995), p. 198, A'72. Rubel 712. ME-Erstdrucke, p. 14. Adams, Radical Literature in America, p. 50. Wilfried Nippel, "Friedrich Engels", in: Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte XI (2017), pp. 67-78, at pp. 70-71. Auvermann/Reiss/Sauer, p. 19. Cf. PMM 326 (1848 ed.).
8vo. A total of 200 pp. and 88 pp. (journal proper and appendix of "news and notes" have separate paginations, each part consecutive from issue to issue), with several leaves inserted (VII: title, 36, 12 pp., 1 f.; VIII: title, [37]-72 pp., [13]-24 pp., 1 f.; IX: title, [73]-102 pp., [25]-42 pp., 1 f.; X: title, [103]-136 pp., [43]-56 pp., 1 f.; XI: title, [137]-168 pp., [57]-72 pp., 1 f.; XII: title, [169]-200 pp., [73]-88 pp., 1 f.). Contemporary marbled boards. Moses Hess' "Gesellschaftsspiegel" was an influential journal of pre-revolutionary social criticism, counting among its authors Karl Marx and (as a more occasional contributor) Friedrich Engels, as well as Rudolf Matthäi, Hermann Püttmann, Heinrich Bürgers, Friedrich Schnake and Georg Weerth. The present volume, comprising the latter six of the total of twelve issues that appeared, contains what scholars have considered perhaps Marx's most singular publication: an article entitled "Peuchet: vom Selbstmord" (in issue VII, pp. 14-26). Compiled from translated excerpts from Jacques Peuchet’s "Du Suicide et de ses Causes", a chapter from the author's memoirs, this long-neglected Marx piece constitutes "a precious contribution to a richer understanding of the evils of modern bourgeois society, of the suffering that its patriarchal family structure inflicts on women, and of the broad and universal scope of socialism" (Michael Löwy, Unusual Marx, in: Monthly Review 53:10 [2002]). It was Marx's habit to compile such excerpts from other authors in his notebooks, but this is the only example of such a collection being published by himself, during his own lifetime. Curiously, as Löwy has pointed out, the author chosen is neither an economist, nor a historian, nor a philosopher, not even a socialist, but none other than a former head of the French police archives under the Restoration! Also, the excerpted work is not a scientific one, but a loose collection of 'life incidents', anecdotes, and small stories, followed by some comments. Nor does the subject matter of the article belong to what is usually considered the political or economic spheres, but has to do with private life, specifically suicide; the main social issue discussed in this connection is women’s oppression in modern societies. "Each one of these traits is unusual in Marx's bibliography, but in combination, they make this piece unique [...] Marx left his imprint on the text in several ways: by his introduction, by the comments with which he peppered the piece, by his selection of the excerpts, and by the modifications introduced through the translations. And the main reason why the piece can be considered as expressing Marx’s own views is that he introduced no distinction whatsoever between his own comments and the excerpts from Peuchet, so that the whole document appears as a homogeneous piece of writing, signed by Karl Marx" (Löwy). - Occasional insignificant edge flaws or remarginings (without loss to text); binding somewhat bumped at extremeties, but in all a fine survival. Rubel 49. Stammhammer I, 90. MEGA I.3, 391-407. Not in Rost.
8vo. X, 50 pp. Original printed wrappers. The rare first complete Russian translation of the Communist Manifesto, with an original preface by the authors, written a year before the death of Marx. Prepared by Georgi Plekhanov, the present authorized edition made obsolete the 1869 first Russian translation (Andréas 54) by Bakunin (or Netshayev?), which contained a number of serious mistakes and omitted several sections of the German original. Although heavily persecuted by the Tsarist government, it would have an immense impact on the Russian socialist movement of the 1880s. - Marx's and Engels' groundbreaking work of communist propaganda is "undoubtedly the most widespread, the most international production of all Socialist literature, the common platform acknowledged by millions of working men from Siberia to California" (preface to the 1888 edition). In the words of the British economist Harold Laski, the Manifesto is "admitted by every serious student of society to be one of the outstanding documents of all time". It also constitutes an early sum of Marx's and Engels's ideas, later to become known by the catchword of "scientific socialism": "[L]e manifeste renferme en puissance la quasi-totalité des idées élaborées par ses deux auteurs dans leurs ouvrages ultérieurs et qui, dans leur ensemble, représentent ce qu'ils appellent le socialisme scientifique; la seul exception importante est la théorie de la plus-value" (Andréas, p. 1). - Unbeknownst to either author, it would be Russia where the Revolution heralded by the Manifesto would finally take place, under the leadership of their disciple Lenin who did not discover Marxism until after Marx's passing (but who was later to prepare his own translation of the Communist Manifesto). - Tiny tear to the blank upper margin of two leaves (pp. 11-14). Upper wrapper and title-page very slightly spotted. Not seen at auction for more than three decades. Marx-Engels Erstdrucke 15 and 17 (illustration). Andréas 135. Rubel 757. OCLC 27880241. Cf. PMM 326.
8vo. (4), 75, (1) pp. Original wrappers. Inscribed by the author: "Prof. Antonio Labriola / Ld 9.4.91 omaggio dell'autore". First edition of Engels' defence against charges which the German economist and social reformer Lujo Brentano had levelled against Marx for supposedly having misquoted Gladstone in an 1863 speech. - Title-page slightly browned, margins somewhat brownstained. From the collection of the Italian Marxist theoretician Antonio Labriola (1843-1904); later in the library of Luigi dal Pane, with his stamp and small bookplate label on the title. Rubel (Appendix) 111. Stammhammer I, 73, 13. Das Werk von Marx und Engels in der Lit. der dt. Sozialdemokratie, no. 536. Marx-Engels Erstdrucke 48.
8vo. (2), XIII, (2), 678 pp. Contemporary half calf with gilt title to spine. In custom-made green morocco-backed clamshell case. First edition in Russian, the first translation of "Das Kapital" into any language. Due to the unexpected popularity of the book, and its subsequent ban in the 1890s, this edition of 3000 copies was soon exhausted and the book became very rare. Later, Marx noted the excellence of the Russian translation. In 1880, he wrote to F. Zorge saying that of all countries, the "Capital" had been read and appreciated most fully in Russia. Marx-Engels Erstdrucke 33.