Eleanor Marx

by Rachel Holmes

  Eleanor and her Victorian Bloomsbury group working, flirting and subverting in the Reading Room at the British Museum.

  Irish Republican, putative pétroleuse, internationalist, feminist, writer, translator, aspiring actor – Tussy comes into her own in her early twenties.

  ‘This International Association and all societies and individuals adhering to it, will acknowledge truth, justice, and morality, as the basis of their conduct towards each other, and towards all men, without regard to colour, creed or nationality; They hold it the duty of a man to claim the rights of man and a citizen, not only for himself, but for every man who does his duty. No rights without duties; no duties without rights.’ The Founding of the International Working Men’s Association, St Martin’s Hall, London, 28 September 1864.

  The Paris Commune of March to May 1871, the first and only attempt to make a proletarian revolution in nineteenth-century Europe, and the first political event in which Tussy was personally involved.

  Eleanor’s soulmate, Olive Schreiner, the great South African writer.

  Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, scientist, activist, feminist, the first Englishwoman to qualify as a physician and surgeon in Britain as well as close Marx family friend and Tussy’s doctor.

  Havelock Ellis, writer, socialist and sexologist, who saved Tussy’s life when she attempted suicide in 1888.

  George Bernard Shaw, who loved Eleanor and said that reading Marx’s Capital changed his life.

  William Morris, romantic, revolutionary and father of English arts and crafts movement; together he and Eleanor established Socialist League.

  William Morris’s daughter May, artist and designer, businesswoman and for many years Tussy’s yearning, unspoken admirer.

  Edward Aveling, Eleanor’s ‘husband’. Socialist educator and would-be playwright.

  Will Thorne, trade unionist and one of the first Labour MPs. Firm friends as well as political comrades, Tussy coached him from bare literacy to eloquence and oratory.

  Tussy in America in 1886, with Liebknecht and Aveling, champion of the Chicago anarchists: ‘It was our duty, and we made it our business, to speak out at every meeting we held in America in favour of a new trial for the condemned Anarchists of Chicago.’

  Brooklyn Bridge, 1880s. Liebknecht, Tussy and Edward sailed into New York harbour on 9 September 1886 aboard the SS City of Chicago, which docked close to Brooklyn Bridge. The Socialistic Labor Party (SLP) of America had invited them to give a four-month speaking tour of fifteen states.

  The great Southwest Railroad Strike of 1886, St Louis. On their tour, Eleanor, Edward and Library travelled around America primarily by train.

  A page from the National Police Gazette, 24th April 1886, depicting the great railway strike of 1886. Eleanor interviewed workers, unionists, strikers, the poor and unemployed across fifteen states for the book that became The Working Class Movement in America, one of her finest works.

  Shakespeare’s home in Stratford. Eleanor and Edward returned from America and took country lodgings, first in Stratford and later in the heart of Warwickshire: ‘Now that I have been in this sleepy little Stratford and met the Stratfordians I know where all the Dogberries and Bottoms and Snugs come from…’

  Bidford, a village close to the hamlet of Dodwell (‘pronounced Dad’ll by the “natives”’) where Tussy spotted two stone cottages on a farm, one with a sign to let. The surprised farmer told them it was two shillings a week.

  Eleanor and Israel Zangwill co-wrote the lampoon A Doll’s House Repaired to answer Ibsen’s scathing British critics. Many believed Zangwill longed for her romantic attentions.

  Eleanor translated Amy Levy’s Reuben Sachs from English into German. ‘The novel’, Tussy said, ‘had used the last of Amy’s reserves, and, left her “a disembodied spirit”.’

  The title page of Eleanor’s translation of Madame Bovary, published by Vizetelly & Co., 1886.

  Socialist politician John Burns addresses a dockers’ rally on Tower Hill during the great strike of 1889.

  An 1889 trade union meeting of the National Gas Workers’ society.

  The London Dock Strike of 1889.

  Poster advertising a demonstration for the eight-hour working day, at which Eleanor and Edward were speakers.

  Putting aside personal rivalries, Eleanor helped Annie Besant organise the successful Bryant & May match-girl strike.

  Strikers at the Bryant & May match factory: Eleanor’s political life was dedicated to the unionisation of girl and women workers.

  Congrès International socialiste, de Bruxelles, 1891. Eleanor and Edward are just visible three rows from the front, third and fourth from the left.

  Frederick Demuth, Helene Demuth’s only child. Skilled engineer, union steward of the Amalgamated Engineering Union, founder member of the Hackney Labour party, and single father. Eleanor said of him, ‘I can’t help feeling that Freddy has had great injustice all through his life.’

  The tomb of Karl Marx in Highgate Cemetery, where his wife Jenny Marx and Helene Demuth are also buried with him. ‘My dear Dada, Oh! Would I were a bird that I might fly to thee and breathe a loving word to one so dear to me, Now dear Daddy, goodbye. Believe me, Your UNdutyful daughter, Eleanor’, wrote Eleanor to Karl Marx, 26 April 1867.

  Acknowledgements

  The librarians, archivists and staff of the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam, the Marx Memorial Library in London, the Local History and Archives Team of the London Borough of Lewisham, the London Metropolitan Archives, the London Library and the British Library. All the specialists, who gave generously of time, expertise and criticism, reading various iterations, sharing advice and material, prodding me to further research, thought and exploration of the Marx and Engels Nachlass. You know who you are, and that I am greatly in your intellectual debt. Thank you to Ronald Bathgate, Richard Jameson, Philippe Riviére and Malcolm Shifrin for pointing out errors.

  Thank you: Lisa Appignanesi, Ann Baskerville, Jane Beese, Victoria Brittain, Omar Burjaq, Polly Clayden, Alistair Constance (best ex), Morgan Cooper, Nicole Crisp, Najwan Darwish, Nathan Geffen, Ann Grant, Omar Robert Hamilton, Suheir Hammad, Nathalie Handal, Sarah Hickson, Kiyo Inoue, John Jolly, Remi Kanazi, Jude Kelly, Helena Kennedy, Laura Miller, Bill & Jeanine Mitchell, Gillian Moore, Tania, Bassem and Hanna Nasir, Susie Nicklin, Margie Orford, Maha Khan Phillips, Yoko Reijn, Margaret Reynolds, Philippe Riviére, my godson Rufus Shaljean, Muneeza Shamsie, Raja and Penny Shehadeh, Faisal Slamang, Ahdaf Soueif, Jana Stefanovska, Saleh Totah, Dalli Weyers. Andrew Davies, especially for the print of your BBC TV series Eleanor Marx (1977). Jacqueline and Alison Rose for the script of Alison Rose’s Tussy, produced by the RSC at the Almeida Theatre in London in August 1985. Helmut Pibernik for German Geschick and for being my second father.

  Socrates & Rosa; Latifa & Hakim; Poppy & Monti; all the denizens of Café La Vie, and Silver & Spike for your generosity in sharing your homes and giving me space to write. My champion godmother Ann Baskerville and my second mother Sarah Holmes, who built A Doll’s House re-visioned.

  My editor Bill Swainson: consistently supporting and encouraging me when I ‘gone fishin’, and for securing me tight lines. The thanks I owe you demand superlatives you would never allow in print. Natasha Fairweather, my superb and redoubtable agent. Alexandra Pringle, inspired in all things. The terrific Bloomsbury team who made this book: managing editor Anna Simpson, copy-editor Emily Sweet, genius designer David Mann, publicists Eleanor Weil and Sophie Christopher, and editorial assistants Oliver Holden-Rea and Imogen Corke.

  Tahmima Anam and Bee Rowlatt, sowster supernovas. Soul sister Josie Rourke got Tussy back on the boards. Carmen Callil, for feminism’s flotilla and Tussy insights. Gillian Slovo for the primacy of material facts and unconditional humanity. Greg Mosse generously shared his brain, sound advice and Amsterdam. Susie Orbach for an infinity of new perspectives. Kate Mosse, stalwart sorority sister, always answering with exactly what’s needed. Barometer and pioneer Louise Shaljea
n. My sister Karen Holmes, especially for her expertise when I needed it most. Shami Chakrabarti and Frances O’Grady for their support of the book. Both are changemakers who renew and advance the legacy of Eleanor Marx.

  Zackie Achmat and Jack Lewis – our General – from inspiration to the last word. Your encyclopaedic Marxian knowledge, sharing of Karoo dawn hours and ability to make me laugh was essential. Kamila Shamsie, camerado, Ur-friend of the open seas. Jeanette Winterson, the midwife without whom. So many thanks.

  Jonathan Evans, for all the reasons he knows. He has been love and generosity itself, sharing his life with Tussy and her family and investing in this book with unstinting encouragement, patience, infinite care and ingenious support. He is a great reader and champion of all writers.

  This work is dedicated, with thanks and love always, to my mother, Karin Anne Pibernik, née Silén, and to the memory of her mother, my purple, white and green grandmother, ‘Speedy’ Haste.

  Bibliography of Eleanor

  Marx’s Key Works

  ‘Marx’s Theory of Value’, Progress, June 1883

  ‘Underground Russia’, Progress, London, August–September 1883

  ‘Karl Marx’, Progress, May and June 1883

  ‘Record of the International Popular Movement’, Today, London, January–July 1884

  ‘The Irish Dynamiters’, Progress, May 1884

  ‘The Working Class Movement in England’, Today, London, 1884

  ‘The Trades Union Congress at Liverpool’, Time: A Monthly Miscellany, London, October 1890

  ‘Literature Notes’, Time, London, August 1890 – February 1891

  Report from Great Britain and Ireland to the Delegates of the Brussels International Congress, 1891, presented by the Gas Workers and General Labourers’ Union; the Legal Eight Hours and International Labour League; the Bloomsbury Socialist Society; and the Battersea Labour League, London, 1891

  Eleanor Marx & Israel Zangwill, ‘A Doll’s House Repaired’, Time: A Monthly Miscellany, London, March 1891

  ‘French and German Classes for the SDF’, Justice, September 1896

  ‘The Gotha Congress’, including ‘Comments on Clara Zetkin’s Speech’, Justice, October 1896

  ‘The Proletarian in the Home’, Justice, November 1896

  ‘Socialist Municipalities and Communes in France’, Justice, January 1897

  ‘Suggestions for Propaganda Work’, Justice, January 1897

  Eleanor Marx & Laura Lafargue, Karl Marx’s Capital, March 1897

  Biographical notes on Karl Marx, Neue Zeit, Vol. 1, Stuttgart, 1897–8

  With Edward Aveling

  The Factory Hell, Socialist League, London, 1885

  ‘The Woman Question: From a Socialist Point of View’, Westminster Review, No. 125, London, January–April 1886; first printed as separate stand-alone edition by Swan Sonnenschein & Co., London, 1886

  Campaign Against Child Labour, Social-Democratic Federation, 1887

  ‘The Chicago Anarchists: a statement of facts’, Today, London, 1887; first printed as separate stand-alone edition by W. Reeves, London, 1888

  Shelley’s Socialism: Two Lectures, privately printed, London, 1888

  The Working Class Movement in America, Swan Sonnenschein & Co., London, 1888

  ‘The Difference Between Byron and Shelley’, Die Neue Zeit, Vol. 6, Stuttgart, January 1888

  ‘Dramatic Notes’, Time, February 1890–February 1891

  Selected Works Translated by Eleanor Marx

  ‘An Account of Abbé Vogler’, in Browning Society Papers, published 1881, and published in Frederick Furnivall (ed.), Fifty Earliest English Wills, Early English Text Society, London, 1882

  Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners, Vizetelly & Co., London, 1886

  Hippolyte Prosper Olivier Lissagaray, History of the Commune of 1871, Reeves & Turner, London, 1886

  Henrik Ibsen, An Enemy of Society and Other Plays, Walter Scott Publishing Co., Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1888, revised edition published as An Enemy of the People, London, 1890

  Henrik Ibsen, The Pillars of Society and Other Plays, Walter Scott Publishing Co., Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1888

  Henrik Ibsen, The Lady from the Sea, T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1890

  Henrik Ibsen, The Wild Duck, W. H. Baker, Boston, 1890

  Alexander Kielland, ‘A Ball-Mood’, Time, London, May 1890

  Eduard Bernstein, Ferdinand Lassalle as a Social Reformer, Swan Sonnenschein & Co., London, 1893

  George Plekhanov, Anarchism and Socialism, Twentieth Century Press, London, 1895

  Wilhelm Liebknecht, ‘A Bad Quarter of An Hour’, Social-Democrat, London, February 1897

  Selected Works Edited by Eleanor Marx

  Friedrich Engels, Revolution and Counter-Revolution, or, Germany in 1848, Swan Sonnenschein & Co., London, 1896 (Engels’s work is incorrectly attributed to Marx)

  Karl Marx, The Eastern Question: A Reprint of Letters written 1853–56 dealing with the events of the Crimean War, Swan Sonnenschein & Co., London, 1897 – includes letters by Engels

  Karl Marx, Value, Price, and Profit, addressed to Working Men, Swan Sonnenschein & Co., London, 1898

  Karl Marx, Secret Diplomatic History of the Eighteenth Century, Swan Sonnenschein & Co., London, 1899

  Karl Marx, The Story of the Life of Lord Palmerston, London, 1899

  Bibliography

  A guide to sources

  The primary archival sources used for this book are from the Marx-Engels papers and related holdings at the International Institute of Social History (IISH) in Amsterdam, Netherlands and the Marx Memorial Library in Clerkenwell Green, London. In addition to the core Marx-Engels papers at the IISH, sources include the facsimile reproductions from the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (RGASPI) and archival items on the First International (International Working Men’s Association) and the Second International in personal papers from the period, including those of Johann Philipp Becker, Hermann Jung, Victor Adler, Karl Kautsky, Henri van Kol and Pieter Troelstra. The Local History and Archives Centre of the London Borough of Lewisham, the London Metropolitan Archives, the National Archives at Kew and the TUC Library Collections, London Metropolitan University provide other key sources. The British Newspaper Archive and Colindale Newspaper Library (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk) and the London Library provided a wide range of contemporary newspapers and journals. The Marxists Internet Archive https://www.marxists.org, compiled by scholars and experts, is the most comprehensive and reliable online free open source of Marxist archives.

  All primary sources are referenced directly in the endnotes, including correspondence, manuscripts, newspaper and journal publications, memoirs and autobiographies. Readers wishing to follow the complete articles, speeches and correspondence discussed can access them on the open source of www.marxists.org – Marxists Internet Archive. The following select bibliography provides a guide to key secondary sources used.

  Select bibliography

  Adams, William Edwin, Memoirs of a Social Atom, Vol. 2, Hutchinson, London, 1903

  Alvarez, Al, The Savage God: A Study of Suicide, Bloomsbury, London, 2002

  Atkinson, Dorothy, Alexander Dalin and Gail Warshofsky Lapidus: Women in Russia, Stanford University Press, 1977

  Auerbach, Nina, Ellen Terry: Player in Her Time, W. W. Norton & Co, New York and London, 1987

  Baxendall, Lee, and Stefan Morawski (eds), Marx and Engels on Literature and Art, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1976

  Berlin, Isaiah, Karl Marx: His Life and Environment, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1948

  Blumenberg, Werner, Karl Marx, Verso, London, 1998

  Booth, Michael, Theatre in the Victorian Age, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1991

  Brandon, Ruth, The New Women and the Old Men: Love, Sex and the Woman Question, HarperCollins, London, 1991

  Brome, Vincent, Havelock Ellis: Philosopher of Sex: A Biography, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1979

  Browning, Rob
ert, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, George Harrap & Co., London, 1934

  Calder-Marshall, Arthur, Havelock Ellis: A Biography, Rupert Hart-Davis, London, 1959

  Chernaik, Judith, The Daughter: A Novel Based on the Life of Eleanor Marx, HarperCollins, London, 1970

  Derfler, Leslie, Paul Lafargue and the Founding of French Marxism, 1842–1882, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA, 1991

  Durkheim, Emile, On Suicide (1897), Penguin Classics, London, 2006

  Eagleton, Terry, Why Marx Was Right, Yale University Press, New Haven CT and London, 2011

  Eichenbaum, Louise, and Susie Orbach, Understanding Women: Feminist Psychoanalytic Approach, Basic Books, New Haven, 1984

  Engels, Friedrich, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State (1884), in Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx, Selected Correspondence, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1965, reprinted by Penguin Classics, London, 2010 (with a new introduction by Tristram Hunt)

  Evans, Faith, and Olga Meier (eds), The Daughters of Karl Marx: Family Correspondence 1866–1898, Andre Deutsch, London, 1982

  First, Ruth, and Ann Scott, Olive Schreiner, The Women’s Press, London, 1989

  Florence, Ronald, Marx’s Daughters: Eleanor Marx, Rosa Luxemburg, Angelica Balabanoff, Dial Press, New York, 1975