“After a year in Soho he came upon a means of income, small, not very secure, but genuine and realisable. The ‘New York Tribune’ invited articles from his pen at £ 2 each, not more than two in a week. The paper had semi-Socialist tradition. Its Editor, Dana, had been in Cologne in 1848 and had picked out Marx as a man to be kept in mind. Now he offered him his columns for political articles without specification of subject. Many a time during his ten years of association with Dana did Marx have cause to curse the ‘Tribune’, and Engels had equal or greater cause, for on him it fell to discover subjects, to collect documentation, to translate from Marx’s German when Marx’s English failed, and not seldom to write the articles himself. Not all the articles were used, and those unused were not paid for. Payment even for those used was sometimes delayed, and the Marx family, with nothing in the kitchen cupboard, would wait in sick hope while is head paced to the City to find whether his bill had been accepted and returned. According to the method of finance then in vogue, Marx, immediately after posting an article, would draw a bill on Dana and make it over to a City banker in communication with the U.S.A. The bill, forwarded to Dana, was “accepted” by him, and then discountable by Marx. Sometimes the bill was mislaid, sometimes Dana informed Marx that he had overdrawn on him, presuming on the publication of articles which had been rejected. Days of anxious, hungry street-pacing ensued for the head of the Communist Party and of the Soho household. Moreover, though at liberty to write on any subject, Marx soon decided that contributory journalism was a great weariness. The he, instead of devoting himself to “pure science”, must take account of the tastes of editor and reader, Hegel had not prepared him for this” [C.J.S. Sprigge, Karl Marx, 1941]
- Categoria dell'articolo:Nuove Accessioni
- Articolo pubblicato:10 Ottobre 2013