THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO BY ROBERT J. USHER The Communist Manifesto is the first crystallized statement of principles of the Socialist movement of today. John Spargo has aptly referred to the document as the Declaration of Independence of the Socialist party. Its title is somewhat misleading, as it was drawn up at a time when the word "communist" had prac tically the meaning of the word "socialist" as under stood now. A fairly detailed history of the circumstances under which it was written and published exists. Drawn up by Carl Marx and Frederic Engels jointly, under instruc tions which had been given them at a convention held during the previous summer, the Manifesto was written at Brussels late in the year 1847 and was sent to London for publication, where it appeared on Feb ruary 24, 1848. The original edition was in German and consisted of twenty-five octavo pages. It had a very limited circulation, copies being placed only in the hands of the leaders of the new movement. The document was received at the time as a master piece of socialistic thought, and preparations were made for translating it immediately into all the European languages. Two French versions, it is said, were drawn IO9
no Bibliographical Society of America up, but because of the outbreak of the Revolution of 1848 at this time no further action was taken, and the document remained practically unknown for twenty five years. The few editions which appeared during that time had a small circulation, and it was not until after 1871 that the Manifesto was widely distributed. So far as is known, the first published translation was the English translation made by Helen McFarlane which appeared in the London journal, the Red Republican, in November of the year 1850. Following the revolutionary outbreaks of 1848-49 officials of the German states seized upon the literature of the Communist League as highly dangerous in char acter, and as an aid to the work of the police a two volume work relating to the activities of the league was published by Wermuth and Stieber, two police officials, in 1853. In the first of these volumes one may read an account of the finding at various times of copies of the offending green-covered Manifesto, and it is reprinted verbatim as one of the supplementary exhibits. The Wermuth-Stieber Verschwdrungen is now a book rarity. In the sixties there appeared a second German edi tion, published in London in 1866, and a first Russian translation was made by Bakunin and published at Geneva in the Russian journal Kolokol some time between 1863 and 1867. Engels is authority for the statement that a Danish and a Polish edition appeared at about this time, but the place and time of publication are not definitely known to the writer.
Bibliography of Communist Manifesto iii To take up the many editions whic since 1870, and beginning with German earliest a Chicago edition of 1871 iss before the great fire and therefore p tion. Frederick Lessner wrote of ha possession in 1893. In 1872 an editio in Berlin and the third authorized German edition appeared in Switzerland in 1883, the same year in which two German editions appeared in America, one in New York and one in Chicago. Then follow the fifth, sixth, and seventh authorized German editions in the years 1891, 1901, and 1906, respectively, and an edition of 1894 known simply as the sixth German edition. Later English editions were issued in England in the years 1886, 1888, and 1890. The first English edition known in America was published in Woodhtdl b Claflin's Weekly of New York in 1872. A second English trans lation was published by Schaerr and Frantz of New York in 1883, and the English edition of 1888 seems to have appeared simultaneously in New York and London. The Chicago socialist publishing house, Charles H. Kerr & Co., issued new English editions in 1902 and 1908, the latter an Esperanto-English edition, the text appearing in the two languages on opposite pages. In 1910 an edition appeared in abbreviated form as a supplement to Reginald Kauffman's What is Socialism? In the French language the Manifesto appeared in a French journal of New York, Le Socialiste, about 1872,
1X2 Bibliographical Society of America and in various Parisian editions in the years 1886, 1895, 1897, 1901, and 1902. Of these there are recorded two different editions for each of the years 1895, 1897, and 1901. One of the best of the French versions is that of Charles Andler, dated 1901, which is in two volumes, one being the text itself and the other a historical criti cism of it. The first Italian edition was published by a group of anarchists at Milan in 1891. Its translator was Pietro Gori. This is but one of a number of instances in which anarchists have assisted in the translation of the famous document. The Russian translation by the Nihilist leader Bakunin has already been mentioned. Lessner mentions having seen several more or less complete translations which were the work of anarchists. Other Italian translations have since appeared in 1893, 1896, 1899, and 1902, the last mentioned being a supplement to Antonio Labriola's essay written in memory of the Manifesto. Labriola's work has been translated into other languages and the supplementary Manifesto has sometimes been included and sometimes omitted. There was a Spaniel translation made at Madrid as early as 1886, and another edition was published twenty years later. Northern Europe too has seen a fairly large number of different editions of the Manifesto. Two Danish translations later than the one already mentioned appeared, one in 1885 and one in 1898, while in the
Bibliography of Communist Manifesto 113 Swedish language there is at least one, the edition of 1903 published in Stockholm. Two Dutch translations have appeared in separate form, one in 1892, one in 1904. Other Russian editions have appeared, usually published outside Russian territory, a Geneva edition of 1882, Plekanoff's translation, dated 1891, and others in 1905 and 1906. Of the known editions of southeastern Europe there were four translations made in Hungary between the years 1896 and 1905, a Lithuanian translation published in London in 1904, the Armenian translation of 1888, referred to by Engels, but said never to have been pub lished, and doubtless a large number of editions in other languages. A Japanese and a Chinese translation are known, the latter having had, it is said, a circulation of two hundred thousand. Of literature concerning the Manifesto it may be said that practically every work dealing with socialism makes mention of it and a few devote a chapter or more to a discussion of its principles. Among the best of these works for bibliographic purposes may be men tioned the German history of socialism by Franz Mehring, the Dutch work, De Socialisten, by Quack, and the recent English work by Spargo on the life of Karl Marx. A number of interesting articles relating to the history of the Manifesto appeared in 1898, the fiftieth anni versary of its birthday. There have appeared from time to time controversial articles as to the sources of the
ii4 Bibliographical Society of America documents, not a few writers having made open charges of plagiarism. So far as known no one has attempted a bibliography of the subject, only scattered notes having appeared here and there, and especially in the forewords of various editions written by Frederic Engels. This preliminary study has brought to light a total of about sixty different editions, and it is likely that the list is far from complete. The earlier reprints or trans lations are found with difficulty, particularly those which appeared in periodicals. The excellent work done in the compiling of bibliographical references for social sciences for recent years makes it possible to locate translations published even in little-known languages. It is hoped that through correspondence with the leaders of the socialist movement, now so thoroughly organized in practically every country of the world, a fairly complete bibliography of the subject may be compiled.