ENGELS TO FLORENCE KELLEY-WISCHNEWETZKY?° 
London, 3 December 1887 
Dear Mrs Wischnewetzky, 

As I told you in my postcard per last mail,°? William Reeves, 
publisher of To-day and of the greater portion of London popular 

Socialist literature, has undertaken the sale of the book.? He writes 
December 1: 

‘Regarding our conversation of to-day (Wednesday) in reference to 
the agency of The Condition etc. by Engels we shall be pleased to under- 
take the same and have copies from you or the publisher in America? at 
the rate of 3s. net bound—the future copies should be sent unbound. 
The sole charge will be the necessary printing of titles and insertion of 
same which will cost about 10s.’ 

And further, December 2: 

‘In answer to your enquiry as to date of making up accounts we beg 
to say that every six months is the time and payment made a month after. 
We understand until other arrangements are made we are dealing with 
you. 

This latter proviso I made as otherwise Reeves could have evaded 
settlement of accounts by saying he did not know whom to pay, Mr 
Lovell or myself, and then cause delay and procrastination. In future 
transactions other arrangements can be made. As to these he writes 
December 1st: 

“The rates for other works similar in character could be taken at about 
the same rate of discounts—it depends a little on the price to be put on 
for retail price, for instance a 6s.- book is supplied to the trade at a little 
cheaper rate than a 5s.- one.’ 

So the fellow will keep a door open for haggling and in future cases it 
will be well to inform me in time, so as to arrange definitely his discount 
before you put his name on the title as London agent. These people are 
all alike. 

The above terms are of course for books delivered to him carriage 
paid and free of all expense on his part. He says the carriage is but trifling 
and so it may be to the trade and for bales, but I know that for parcels 
sent to private people they stick it on pretty well; Kautsky had to pay 
above 10s for the copies sent to him, and the Liverpool agent (Wheatley) 
made me pay 2s.6d. extra expenses on the parcel containing the 1,000 
pamphlets,° altho’ no carriage whatever was charged to me. 

We shall send copies to the Socialist press (except Justice which had 
one from America and said just two lines about it), to the Athenaeum, 

*E Engels, The Condition of the Working-Class in England —» John W. Lovell - 
°K Engels, The Labor Movement in America — 4 Justice, No. 176, 28 May 
1887 

Academy and Pall Mall Gazette; Weekly Dispatch and Reynolds. The 
Commonweal (I sent a copy to Morris) has begun a series of extracts 
from the book,! the first of which I mailed to you to-day. Altogether 
the prospects are very good. Only we must not send the copies to the 
press until after Christmas, otherwise they would be wasted. 

As to the pamphlet,? as I told you, Reeves had it pirated and will of 
course sell his own lot first. I shall hand the 1,000 copies to Aveling to 
do the best he can—either sell at meetings or give to Reeves as he may 
want them; but I am afraid a good deal of them will have to be given 
away gratis in the long run at meetings. 

Your translation of Free Trade shall have attention as soon as ever 
possible.!% I shall also write a preface, only I am sure it will not in any 
case be what you want. It is impossible for me to answer the probable 
arguments of American protectionists beforehand. I do not know that 
sort of literature and have no time to go into it. My reasoning in nine 
cases out of ten would miss the mark, and moreover whatever we may 
say, they will always find a way out, and have something to say that 
we cannot foresee. To enter into polemics with them directly, one 
must be in America. And I have always found that a good book makes 
its way and has its effect whatever the penny-a-liners of the day may 

say. 

Yours faithfully 
F. Engels