Karl Marx, Capital, first American translation

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„‘Charles H. Kerr‘, whose eponymous company served as the de facto publisher of the Socialist Party“ in the USA (Jason D. Martinek, „Socialism and Print Culture in America, 1897-1920“, London, Pickering & Chatto, 2012, p. 3). Nearly 20 years after the publication of volume one of “Das Kapital” in English, Kerr charged a socialist author and journalist from Germany, Ernest Untermann (1864-1956), with the translation of volume two and three.

“Unterman, with wife and daughters, required some sort of support if the monumental task of translating Capital was to proceed. Following an unsuccessful attempt to raise the needed funds through a company stock subscription drive, Kerr finally secured financial assistance from Eugene Dietzgen, by way of Wiesbaden, Germany, and Zurich, Switzerland.” (Allen Ruff, “We Called Each Other Comrade”, Oakland, PM Press, 2011, p. 100). Eugene Dietzgen (1862–1929) was an industrialist and socialist patron.

"Unterman set to work on the massive project in the spring of 1905 while living on a chicken farm in Orlando” Florida. ‚I couldn’t have done it on what Kerr paid me,‘ he later recounted, ‚but Eugene Dietzgen paid me a total of $5.00 per page, so I built up a little chicken ranch that panned out well enough to keep my family and myself in groceries. I did the translating after I got through fighting skunks, opossums, snakes, and hawks and for a while it was doubtful whether the chicken business belonged to me or to preying animals. But I won out after a while.‘”

“The transplanted Floridian not only translated volumes two and three, but he also revised and edited a new edition of volume one. Engels had edited the proofs for a fourth German edition of volume one four years after the publication of the Swann, Sonnenschein English version, and Unterman used the revised German work as the source for his translation. Kerr released the new imprint of volume one late in 1906, and the two additional volumes rolled from the press between 1907 and 1909. The Kerr edition of Capital immediately became the accepted English version, and Swann, Sonnenschein, in conjunction with Charles H. Kerr & Company, began to distribute it throughout the English-speaking world.” (Allen Ruff, “We Called Each Other Comrade”, Oakland, PM Press, 2011, p. 90). The title page of volume two – but not volume three - gives the competitors Charles H. Kerr and Swann Sonnenschein as co-publishers.

„Despite the expense to the firm of producing the three volumes — more than $3,500 — the books were hardly best-sellers. Kerr estimated that his firm sold only about 1,400 copies of the first volume a year after its first appearance. Moreover, it took almost two years for the second volume’s first printing of 1,000 copies to sell out.” (Jason D. Martinek, „Socialism and Print Culture in America, 1897-1920“, London, Pickering & Chatto, 2012, p. 54)

Capital, volume I

American edition, 1906

CAPITAL A CRITIQUE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY BY KARL MARX VOLUME I THE PROCESS OF CAPITALIST PRODUCTION TRANSLATED FROM THE THIRD GERMAN EDITION, BY SAMUEL MOORE AND EDWARD AVELING AND EDITED BY FREDERICK ENGELS REVISED AND AMPLIFIED ACCORDING TO THE FOURTH GERMAN EDITION BY ERNEST UNTERMANN CHICAGO CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY.

618 p.

3 Contents

7 Editors note to the first American edition, July 18, 1906

11 Author’s prefaces

27 Editor’s prefaces to the first English translation, fourth german edition

41 Book I. Capitalist production

849 Works and authors quoted in “Capital”

865 Index

Printer not named

Published: 1906

Binding: burgundy cloth, lettered gilt on spine, “CAPITAL I. CAPITALISTIC PRODUCTION KARL MARX CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY”

Capital, volume II

First English translation, 1907

CAPITAL A CRITIQUE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY BY KARL MARX VOLUME II THE PROCESS OF CIRCULATION OF CAPITAL EDITED BY FREDERICK ENGELS TRANSLATED FROM THE SECOND GERMAN EDITION BY ERNEST UNTERMANN CHICAGO CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY LONDON SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO 1907

618 p.

3 Contents

7 Preface Engels, May 5, 1885, July 15, 1893

30 Translator’s note

31 Book II, The circulation of capital

613 Index

Printer not named, Union label: “ALLIED PRINTING TRADE (UNION LABEL) COUNCIL CHICAGO 241”.

Published: 1907

Binding: burgundy cloth, lettered gilt on spine, “Half Guinea International Library Sonnenschein”

Price: half guinea (1 guinea = 21 shillings or £1)

Capital, volume III

First English translation, 1909

CAPITAL A CRITIQUE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY BY KARL MARX VOLUME III THE PROCESS OF CAPITALIST PRODUCTION AS A WHOLE EDITED BY FREDERICK ENGELS TRANSLATED FROM THE FIRST GERMAN EDITION BY ERNEST UNTERMANN CHICAGO CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY CO-OPERATIVE

1048 p.

5 Contents

9 Preface Engels, October 4, 1894

37 Volume III The process of capitalist production as a whole

1033 Index

Printer not named, Union label: “ALLIED PRINTING TRADE (UNION LABEL) (...) 80”.

Published: 1909

Binding: burgundy cloth, lettered gilt on spine, “CAPITAL III. CAPITALIST PRODUCTION AS A WHOLE KARL MARX CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY”

Bibliography:

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Allen Ruff, "We Called Each Other Comrade. Charles H. Kerr & Company, Radical Publishers“, Oakland, PM Press, 2011

Jason D. Martinek, „Socialism and Print Culture in America, 1897-1920“, London, Pickering & Chatto, 2012

From the collections of the Karl Marx Memorial Library Luxembourg

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