Letter to Antonio Labriola, February 27, 1891

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 27 February 1891


First published in: Marx and Engels, Works, Second Russian Edition, Vol. 38, Moscow, 1965
Printed according to a manuscript copy of unknown origin
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 49


ENGELS TO ANTONIO LABRIOLA

IN ROME

[Copy]

London, 27 February 1891

... Unfortunately I cannot place the old ms. on Stirner at Mr Mackay's disposal. If it is published it will be by me or my assigns. But to hand over to a third party for such use as he may think fit an unpublished ms. in which Marx had a hand is something I have no right to do, nor would I do so if I had. I have had some highly peculiar experiences in this respect. Never again shall I part with unica,[1] whatever the circumstances. And besides, the ms. is a tome which in print would be as thick as Stirner's Einziger[2] itself—it's very tattered and fragmentary — and is still in need of rearrangement...

(Frederick Engels)

  1. original texts
  2. M. Stirner, Der Einzige und sein Eigenthum.