London, 9 December [1847] 

Dear Annenkov, 

Party considerations, into which I cannot enter here, obliged me 
to pay a visit to London.'” I took advantage of this visit both to 
put the Brussels Democratic Association in touch with the English 
Chartists and to harangue the latter at a public meeting.“ You 
perhaps saw some reports about it in the English and French 
press. 

But when I set out on this trip—and I am compelled to stay 
here a few days longer—I left my family behind in the most 
difficult and direst of circumstances. It is not simply that my wife 
is ill and the children“ likewise. My economic situation just now is 
so critical that my wife is being veritably harassed by creditors and 
is in the most wretched financial straits. 

How this crisis came about is easily explained. The German 
manuscripts are not being published as a whole. Those parts that 
are being published* I am supplying gratis, simply in order to 

a fleeting success - » He must be kept to his own sphere. - ¢ K. Marx and F. Engels, 
‘On Poland’. - 4 Jenny, Laura and Edgar - © This seems to refer to Marx’s critical 
article on Grün’s Die sociale Bewegung in Frankreich und Belgien published in Das 
Westphdlische Dampfboot, August-September 1847. It is one of the manuscripts of 
Volume II of Marx and Engels’ The German Ideology. 

launch them on the world. My anti-Proudhon pamphlet* has sold 
very well. However I shall not receive a share of the proceeds until 
Easter. 

By itself, my wife’s income is insufficient and I have been 
negotiating with my own mother for quite some time to extract at 
least part of my fortune. There would now seem to be an 
immediate prospect of this. But that is of no help at the present 
moment. 

In this situation, which I am not ashamed frankly to disclose to 
you, you would in truth save me from the worst if you could 
arrange to let my wife have a sum of between 100 and 200 francs. 
I shall, of course, be unable to repay you until my money matters 
have been settled with my family. 

If you are able to agree to my proposal, I would request you to 
send the money to my old address: M. Charles Marx, Bruxelles, 
Faubourg Namur, rue d’Orléans, 42. However my wife must not 
be able to deduce from your letter that I wrote to you from 
London. I'll tell you the reason later. 

Another time, I trust, I shall be able to send you more cheerful 
news. 

Yours 
K. Marx