29. Karl Marx. Letter to Max Friedländer, the Editor of the Neue Freie Presse
Dear Friend,
Would you be so kind as to publish the following statement in your newspaper and to send me a copy of the issue in question.
Yours very sincerely,
Karl Marx
TO THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF THE NEUE FREIE PRESSE
Under the heading "A Socialist Soirée", signed W.,(1) the Vienna Presse carries a feature article in which I have the honour to figure. W. met me, so he says,at a soirée at Herzen's house. He even recalled the speeches that I made there.
A firm opponent of Herzen, I have always refused to meet him, and have therefore never seen the man in my life.
I doubt whether the imaginative W. has ever been to London. As a matter of fact, there are no "marble steps" there, except in the palaces, though W. even found some in Herzen's "COTTAGE"!
I hereby challenge the imaginative W., whom the laurels of the Paris-Journal and similar police newspapers(2) will not allow to sleep, to name himself.
Karl Marx London, June 30, 1871
Published in the newspapers Neue Freie Printed according to the Neue Presse, No. 2462, July 4, 1871, Börse des Freie Presse, verified with the rough Lebens, Feuilleton und Localblatt der Berliner manuscript; the covering letter is Börsen-Zeitung, No. 30, July 23, 1871 printed according to the manuscript