Capital: A critical analysis of capitalist production by Karl Marx.

MARX, Karl; MOORE, Samuel and Edward Aveling (trans.)

Published by Appleton & Co. / Swan Sonnenschein & Co., New York/London, 1889

About this Item

First American edition of the first English translation of Marx?s Capital, the foundational work of modern political economy and social theory. This is the Appleton issue of the 1887 London edition published by Swan Sonnenschein, printed from the same stereotyped plates and English sheets but with a newly titled title page for the American market. It is the earliest separately issued American edition of Capital in English and an important landmark in the history of Marx?s reception in the United States. Its American publication is unusually well documented. In a letter from London to Friedrich Adolph Sorge dated 23 February 1889, Friedrich Engels reported on his dealings with Swan Sonnenschein: ?On being approached, Sonnenschein said he had sold 500 copies of the cheap edition to Appleton.? The letter provides contemporary evidence that 500 copies of Sonnenschein?s edition had been sold to D. Appleton & Co. in New York, establishing a direct commercial link between the London edition and its American issue. It also helps distinguish this Appleton issue from the later Humboldt Publishing Company edition, which began appearing in serialized form in 1890. The translation was based on the third German edition of 1883 and prepared by Samuel Moore, a close associate of Marx and translator of The Communist Manifesto, in collaboration with Edward Aveling, Marx?s son-in-law and the partner of Eleanor Marx. The translation was revised under the supervision of Friedrich Engels, who, following Marx?s death in 1883, assumed responsibility for the publication and interpretation of his unfinished work. Marx conceived Capital as a multi-volume analysis of the capitalist mode of production. Only volume I appeared during his lifetime, first published in Hamburg in 1867; volumes II and III were subsequently edited from Marx?s manuscripts by Engels and published in 1885 and 1894. English translations of the later volumes did not appear until the Charles H. Kerr editions of 1906?09. For almost two decades, therefore, this translation provided English-speaking readers with their principal access to Marx?s mature economic theory in book form. Written largely during Marx?s prolonged exile in London, Capital combines philosophy, classical political economy, and historical analysis in a systematic critique of capitalism. Its analysis of commodities, labour, value, surplus value, accumulation, and class relations profoundly influenced subsequent work in economics, sociology, political theory, and economic history. Its American appearance coincided with rapid industrialisation, growing concentrations of wealth, and increasing labour unrest, establishing a durable textual basis for Marx?s subsequent influence on American political and intellectual discourse. The present copy bears two Japanese ownership stamps on the title page, recording a further stage in the international circulation of Marx?s work. They are of particular interest in the context of the Meiji and Taisho periods, when Western political and economic theories were actively introduced and debated in Japan. Early Western editions of Capital with Japanese provenance are distinctly uncommon. An important American issue of Marx?s principal work, with contemporary documentary evidence from Engels illuminating its distribution by Appleton and with Japanese provenance attesting to its later international reception.
Large octavo (22.1 x 14.0 cm). Text in English. Original publisher?s ochre cloth, spine gilt. Boards worn, spine more heavily rubbed at head; inner hinges partially split but sound, binding firm. Internally generally very good with expected paper toning. A respectable, unrestored example of this scarce and historically significant first American edition.

Seller Inventory # 00044

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Capital: A critical analysis of capitalist production by Karl Marx.
• Publisher: Appleton & Co. / Swan Sonnenschein & Co., New York/London
• Publication Date: 1889
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine