I kept hoping someone would post the story I heard about this, but it hasn't happened. I assume it's the Marxist version of an urban legend, but here it goes-- Marx had admirers, one of whom was much more persistent, and annoying than the others. He kept pestering Marx to let him translate *Capital*, even though he was an abysmal translator. he also kept inviting Marx to these Marxist group. Finally, exasperated, Marx sent him a note saying "Je ne suis pas une Marxiste!!"
Frances
On Thu, 20 Aug 1998, hoov wrote:
> Jim Heartfield:
> > 'Just as Marx used to say about the French "Marxists" of the late
> > seventies: "All I know is that I am not a Marxist."'
> > Engels. letter to Conrad Schidt, 5 August 1890, Collected Corres., Ed.
> > Dona Torr, L&W, 1934 p 472
> >
> > E Philion <philion at hawaii.edu> writes
> > >TITLE(s): Karl Marx's theory of revolution / by Hal Draper.
> > > New York : Monthly Review Press, c1977-1990.
> > >Partial cont.: 1. State and bureaucracy. 2 v. -- v. 2. The politics of
> > > social classes -- v. 3. The "Dictatorship of the
> > > Proletariat" -- v. 4. Critique of other socialisms.
>
> a bit late with my 2 cents as usual...I should probably save this since
> the question at hand comes up periodically and I always have to look
> up the cite again before posting the info...
>
> in Vol. II of above, "The Politics of Social Classes', Draper (pp. 5-8)
> maintains that we know the quote (or a variant) because Engels
> mentioned it 4 times...
>
> 1. a letter to Bernstein in 1882 in which E states that Marx said
> to Lafargue about French 'Marxism': 'what is certain is that, as for
> me, I am no Marxist'...
>
> 2. a letter to Schmidt in 1890 in which E recounts that M said
> about French 'Marxists' of the late 1870s: 'All I know is than I am no
> Marxist'...
>
> 3. a letter to Lafargue in 1890 in which E reminds L of the French
> who went in for Marxism and of whom M said the same as #2...
>
> 4. a piece published in 1890 in the Social Democratic party newspaper
> in which E writes that M said of the prevailing French 'Marxism' of
> the late 1870s: 'all I know is than I am no Marxist'...
>
> Draper also notes a thirdhand account from Lopatin, the Russian
> Populist translator of _Capital_, who wrote that Engels had told
> him that M said of the French Marxists: 'I can say only one thing,
> I am no Marxist'....and D indicates that M's other French son-in-law,
> Charles Lonquet wrote in a 1900 preface to _Civil War in France_
> that M had said: 'Still and all, I am no Marxist'...Michael Hoover
>