[lbo-talk] Lefty library of pdfs

[andie_nachgeborenen]

Marx spent the 1860s writing Capital. The first "volume" of Theories of Surplus Value, the notes that are sometimes marketed as vol. 4 of Capital, we're written around 1862-63. The Grundrisse was abandoned in 1858, though there were intervening works such as  contribution to the Critique of Political Economy in 1859. In any case it was "only" a decade between the first unpublished writings in the vein of Capital, vol  1 its actual publication in 1867. Marx made a living writing newspaper articles and being subsidized by his wealthy fried, the capitalist Frederick Engels. It would not have been reasonable for Marx to expect to make a living by putting years into writing a long and immensely difficult and rather technical book. That doesn't mean he or his publishers meant it to be distributed for free.

Sent from my iPad

On Sep 11, 2012, at 12:03 AM, 123hop at comcast.net wrote:


> I am torn. On the one hand, I want lefty lit to be disseminated as widely as possible, and I know that a lot of people who want/need to read this stuff are poor. 
> 
> On the other hand, I want living people to be able to make a living writing books/essays, which, I know, take an ongodly amount of work. Didn't Marx spend twenty years on Capital? 
> 
> Perhaps one solution is to give away/download only the work of dead authors.
> 
> J. 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> At 10:55 PM -0400 10/9/12, Doug Henwood wrote: 
>> 
>>> http://ebookcollective.tumblr.com/archive 
>> 
>> I was just denouncing this shit on Facebook. How are publishers 
>> supposed to pay writers and editors if stuff is given away for free? 
>> I hate this idiocy. 
> O
> Hmm. Perhaps the problem is the writers who expect to get paid for 
> their stuff, when material conditions tend to favour it being give
> away for free? 
> 
> No doubt Gutenburg was similarly denounced: "How are publishers 
> supposed to pay the people who hand-script copies of books onto 
> vellum, if books are being run off in their thousands on this 
> new-fangled printing press???!!!" ;-) 
> 
> Bill Bartlett 
> Bracknell Tas 
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