Manifesto of the Communist Party.

£2,750 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

The later of two stereotyped reprints both designated as the ‘Fifth Edition’ of the first Authorised English Translation of the Communist Manifesto. The publisher, William Reeves, produced stereotype plates from pages 3-31 the original 1888 edition and frequently reprinted the text thereafter. The present example is the seventh edition produced by Reeves in chronological order and is distinguishable from the earlier so-called ‘Fifth Edition’, dated by Andréas as circa 1908-1912, by various factors, including: the price is increased from ‘Twopence’ to ‘Threepence’; the addition of a general notice at the head of the advertisements page noting that ‘Most of the advertised prices of 1s. are increased now to 1s. 6d. net.’; and, finally, the present example is printed on noticeably cheaper wood pulp paper stock, leading to Andréas speculating that it was printed circa 1918 when Britain introduced paper rationing at the end of the First World War. “[One of the outstanding political documents of all time” (PMM), the first ‘Authorised English Translation’ of the Manifesto of the Communist Party, remaining to date the primary source for all English translations. Edited and annotated by Engels, who also undertook significant portions of the translation work, and as such the only translation of the Manifesto ever produced with full editorial control by either Marx or Engels, the “translation which is undoubtedly the most important one of all, because of Engels’ special relation to it” (

• Year: 1918

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