London, 10 November 1877 
41 Maitland Park Road, N. W. 

Dear Blos, 

I was delighted to hear from you [Dir]? again at last (that ‘Dir’ 
slipped naturally from my pen. So do drop the ‘Sie” in future). I 
had long since proposed that the abominable Isolde‘ be dismissed, 
and fulminated against her in vain. 

Whenever, in ‘la Place’, the word place is written with a capital 
P, it always means the Place Vendéme, that being the seat of the 
commander of the National Guard; in Paris at the time he was the 
equivalent of what we call ‘town-major’. 

As regards the ‘suppression de l’Etat’,) an expression which 
Lissagaray himself will be altering in the 2nd French edition,* the 
sense is no different from that expounded in my pamphlet on the 
‘Civil War’ in France.! In short, you can translate it ‘abolition (or 
suppression) of the class state’. 

I ‘bear no ill-will (as Heine says) and nor for that matter does 
Engels.” Neither of us cares a straw for popularity. Let me cite 
one proof of this: such was my aversion to the personality cult that 
at the time of the International, when plagued by numerous 
moves—originating from various countries—to accord me public 
honour, I never allowed one of these to enter the domain of 
publicity, nor did I ever reply to them, save with an occasional 
snub. When Engels and I first joined the secret communist society, 
we did so only on condition that anything conducive to a 
superstitious belief in authority be eliminated from the Rules.*” 
(Lassalle subsequently operated in the reverse direction.) 

But events such as occurred at the last party congress **°—they 
are being well and truly exploited by enemies of the party 
abroad—have in any case made it necessary for us to be 
circumspect in our relations with ‘party members in Germany’. 

Apart from that, my state of health compels me to devote to the 

a The familiar form of address in German: ‘Dir’—‘Thee’. - > you (as opposed to 
‘Du’) - © Isolde Kurz - ¢ suppression of the state - © [P. O.] Lissagaray, Histoire de 
la Commune de 1871.-  K. Marx, The Civil War in France. - 8 H. Heine, Lyrisches 
Intermezzo, ‘Ich grolle nicht...’ 

completion of my book? the time allotted to me for work by my 
doctor; and Engels, who is working on several longer books, is still 
sending contributions to the Vorwdrts.'* 

It would amuse me to hear more from time to time about my 
‘combinations with Father Beckx’.**! 
Engels will be writing to you shortly. 

With warm regards from my wife and my daughter Eleanor. 

Totus tuus,> 
Karl Marx