Beschreibung:

MARX, KARL. Autograph letter signed ("Karl Marx") to Alexander Freund ("Lieber Freund Freund"), London, 21 January 1877. 1.1/8 page, 202 x 128 mm. (8 x 56 in.), the blank side neatly backed, closely written, in German. With an ALS of Wolfgang Heine, 19 October 1916, 4 pp., 12mo, regarding Marx's letter. MARX PREDICTS A REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA, DISMISSES WAGNER'S MUSIC AND REQUESTS BOOKS FOR "MY FRIEND ENGELS" An unusually rich letter, commencing in a jocular tone, containing interesting comments on the present European balance of power and the likelihood of revolution in Russia, a sarcastic comment on Wagner's music and requests for a work on Shakespeare for his daughter (a member of the Shakespeare Society) and other books for his friend and collaborator, Friedrich Engels. "I am sending New Years' greeting to you and your wife a little late, thanks to my workload and a sore throat, which I contracted during my last days in Karslbad. What happened to me there is what happened to the bumpkin ['Bauer'] Martin Luther, who, mounting a horse from one side, would fall off on the other." He sends greetings from his daughter who "has translated Delius 'The Epic Element in Shakespeare,' printed by the local Shakespeare Society, of which she is a member. This translation brought great praise from Delius's friends. She would like the name of the Anti-Shakespeare Professor and his work...The matador ['matador'] of the local Shakespeare Society, Mr. [Frederick] Furnivall, doesn't want to forego the pleasure of that opus." "The 'oriental question' (which will end with a revolution in Russia, regardless of the war against Turkey) and the inspection of the Social-Democratic troops in the Fatherland will hopefully convince the German cultural philistines ['Kulturphilister'] that there are more important things in the world the Richard Wagner's pie-in-the-sky music ['Zukunftsmusik']." Marx closes with a request that if Freund sees Traube, he should give him Marx's greetings and remind him politely "to send me the titles of his various works which he promised me," which "are very important for my friend Engels, who is working on a book regarding natural philosophy ['naturphilosophischen'] in which he intends to utilize Traube's findings" [possibly Engels' Dialektik der Natur ]. Marx had published vol.1 of Das Kapital in 1867 and was at the date of this letter actively at work on its continuation; vols. 2 and 3, edited by Engels, were published posthumously.