Letters of Marx and Engels 1844
Published: Katalog 211 des Antiquariats Leo Liepmonssohn, Berlin, 1924;
Translated: by Peter and Betty Ross;
Transcribed: by zodiac@interlog.com, 1996.
Dear Sir,
It is impossible for me to let you have the review of Stirner before next week. Therefore deliver the specimen copy without my contribution; Buergers will let you have an article in its stead.
You shall have my article next week.
Yours faithfully
Marx
Here, Marx writes about the Vorwarts! Pariser Deutsche Monatsschrift which Heinrich Boernstein planned to publish instead of the newspaper Vorwarts! The prospectus of the monthly published in German and French on 1 January 1845 (its publication date helps in determining the approximate date of this letter) stated that one of the reasons for the reformation of Vorwarts! was that no caution-money was needed for publishing a journal as distinct from a newspaper. The journal of eight printed sheets was to appear on the 16th of each month. The expulsion of Marx and other contributors to Vorwarts! from France prevented the publication of the first issue, the proof sheets of which had already been printed.
As is seen from this letter, and that of Engels to Marx written approximately 20 January 1845, Marx intended to write a critical review of Stirner's Der Einzige und sein Eigenthum at the end of December 1844 and originally wanted to publish it in the monthly Vorwarts! There is no information on whether this plan materialized. It is only known that two years later, Marx and Engels scathingly criticized Stirner's book in the German Ideology.