Extremely rare ALS in English, one page, 4.5 x 7, October 1, 1879. Written from 41 Maitland Park Road in London, a letter to Collet Dobson Collet. In full: “On my return from the seaside I found your letter d’d 23 September. You will much oblige me by being so kind as to forward me some of the copies of the ‘Revelations,’ as I have none left.” In very good condition, with intersecting folds, moderate wrinkling, and a few creases; the sheet is bright, the writing dark, precise, and easily legible in spite of Marx’s distinctive tiny hand.
Marx was a close friend of the Collet family, which included pioneering feminist activist Sophia Dobson Collet, social reformer Clara Collet, and the recipient of this letter, Collet Dobson Collet, the editor of The Free Press: A Diplomatic Review, to which Marx contributed a number of articles. The men became good friends and soon held weekly meetings at each other's houses to recite Shakespeare. The assembled group, which was formally coined as the Dogberry Club, included Marx's daughter Eleanor and Collet's daughter Clara, as well as Edward Rose, Dollie Radford, Sir Henry Juta, and Frederic Engels. The publication to which Marx evidently alludes, ‘Revelations of the Diplomatic History of the 18th Century,’ was originally serialized in the Free Press from August 1856 to April 1857.
Marx letters are extraordinarily rare and virtually nonexistent outside of institutions; in almost forty years of business, this is the only one we have ever encountered.
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