Manifesto of the Communist Party. Authorised English Translation. Edited and annotated by Frederick Engels. 1888. Fifth edition. MARX, Karl, & Friedrich Engels.

First authorized edition in English, eighth impression (stated "fifth edition"), of the Communist Manifesto, following the first impression of 1888. The Manifesto was first published in German in 1848 and in the coming decades was translated in whole or in part, studiously or in a garbled form, into several European languages, including a serialized translation into English in the Chartist journal The Red Republican in 1850. A bowdlerized English-language edition was published in 1883. This is the only translation edited and authorised by Engels (Marx having died in 1883), whose involvement was extensive: he selected the translator, negotiated with the publisher, and repeatedly stressed the importance and difficulty of an English version. Engels also supplied a new preface, the longest and most significant he wrote for the Manifesto. The translation contains a large number of modifications of expression, omissions, and minor additions. It remains the primary source for all English translations. Reeves issued impressions from the original plates for decades. Andréas notes there are two impressions stated "fifth edition", this being the second with the price increased from two to three pence (although it has an earlier state of the advertisements on the rear wrapper, before the notice that prices are to be increased, which Andréas calls for, was added). Andréas 495. Printing and the Mind of Man 326 (first German edition). Octavo. Wire-stitched as issued. Lightly soiled and rubbed, very slight rust mark at head of front cover. A very good copy.