[Draft] 
London, 25 July 1882 

Dear Mr Hepner, 

My delay in replying has been due to Marx’s illness and frequent 
changes of abode. It was not until recently that I was able to corre- 
spond with him about business matters. Our views* on your projected 
undertaking °5° are as follows: 

As you are fully entitled in law to reprint anything that appears in 
Europe, you would, in our opinion, do best to go ahead and exercise 
that right without asking anybody. If you wish to reprint the Com- 
munist Manifesto we can have no objection whatever, nor would it 
occur to us to protest against it, provided there were no changes or 
omissions — in any case inadmissible in an historical document — or 
unless compelled to do so by unwarranted notes. We cannot write 
a preface, not only because we are not together, but also, and still 

 Tbid., p. 284. 

more, because we should thereby be identifying ourselves to some 
extent with an undertaking which we are not in a position either to 
supervise or to control, nor, indeed, might we wish to do so. As it is, 
you will be entirely at liberty to reprint anything else you wish, with- 
out our ever having cause to complain of the company in which our 
works appear. 

The same applies to my Condition of the Working Class. If you reprint 
it as it stands I can have no objection. Were I, however, to give 
you my special consent, I should be obliged to provide the addenda 
and notes needed to bring the book up to date, and that would be 
6 months’ work. Moreover I should require prior guarantees that the 
undertaking, once begun, would be brought to a conclusion. 

I trust I have convinced you that it would be in your best interests 
to go ahead on your own. We shall certainly not place any obstacle in 
the way of the undertaking unless compelled to do so; rather the 
reverse. 

As regards a new abridgement of Capital, Marx has had so many 
unpleasant experiences with this kind of thing that no further ap- 
proaches should be made to him about the matter, especially not at 
the moment. However (this in confidence) Marx has purged the 
second edition of Most’s abridgement °°! of its grosser errors and made 
a few addenda, so that this edition is not without its merits and could 
be reprinted. 

Otherwise there is little that I can recommend for reprinting. The 
literature produced by Leipzig consists largely in the socialism of the 
future and doctoral dissertations by parliamentary candidates. Jules 
Guesde’s French stuff is good on the whole, but too closely geared to 
French conditions. Bracke’s Nieder mit den Sozialdemokraten! is perhaps 
not suitable for America. Bebel’s parliamentary speeches are by far 
the best thing that Germany has produced in our line, but they are, of 
course, made for the occasion. Lassalle teems with economic howlers 
and his whole viewpoint was superseded long ago. Bracke’s Lassal- 
le’scher Vorschlag is a pretty good piece of criticism, though not 
exhaustive. 

Well, it’s for you to choose. Wishing your undertaking the best of 
luck, 

Yours, 

F_E.