279

Karl Marx

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles Start Price:NA Estimated At:NA
Karl Marx

Bidding Over

The auction is over for this lot.
The auctioneer wasn't accepting online bids for this lot.

Contact the auctioneer for information on the auction results.

Search for other lots to bid on...
Auction Date:2020 May 13 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:15th Floor WeWork, Boston, Massachusetts, 02108, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
Exceedingly rare ALS in French, one page, 4.25 x 5.25, January 13, 1872. Letter to "Dear Citizen," apparently the publisher Maurice Lachâtre. In full (translated): "Enclosed p. 442-472 of the manuscript. You will oblige me by acknowledging receipt. Please, by sending me the 100 copies of booklet II, add 30 copies of booklet I to your account." In fine condition, with light creasing.

In 1872, Lachâtre published the first book of Marx's Das Kapital in French—Le Capital, translated by Joseph Roy but edited by Marx himself. In his publishing agreement, Marx demanded that 'the edition of his book be expressly in a form and at a price that make the work accessible to the smallest purses.' The work proved to be the foundational text for Marxism,exploring the exploitative nature of the capitalist mode of production and the resultant struggle between social classes. Marx drew heavily from the French socialist thinkers—Claude Henri St. Simon and Charles Fourier in particular—in his studies of the political economy, making a French translation a natural fit. And, as he was fluent in French, Marx was able to edit and revise it himself.

In the end, Marx complained that Roy often translated too literally, but 'whatever the literary defects of the French edition, it possesses a scientific value independent of the original and should be consulted even by readers familiar with German.' Marx's letters are incredibly scarce, and as this example is associated with the publication of his most important work, it is of the utmost desirability.