Letters on India - First Complete Publication

Marx, Karl; Edited by B.P.L. and Freda Bedi

Published by Contemporary India Publication, Model Town, Lahore, 1936

First edition, first printing, dated 1936 to the title page. Printed at the Ripon Printing Press, Bull Road, Lahore. Original printed wraps 12 x 18cm. xv + 62 + (1)pp. The covers are good, with the title of the work faintly handwritten to the spine. Reflecting the cheap quality of the paper used, the interiors in particular are now fragile: the paper is tanned and quite brittle, mostly good or better with closed tears and occasional faint pencil lines; the title page (with a little loss) and the blank versos of the fore-edges of the subsequent 2 leaves have been reinforced with Japanese paper without affecting the text. The small signature of Mervyn Jones, the British journalist, novelist and biographer, is written in ink to the top edge of the title page. Very rare - Worldcat and Jisc record only 2 locations (BL; University of Regina). Two reprints published and dated 1937 are both scarce. Freda Bedi's biographer, Andrew Whitehead, describes its genesis and assesses its significance as follows: "This was truly a labour of love. When romance stirred between B.P.L. Bedi and Freda Houlston, fellow students at Oxford, their joint endeavour to track down Karl Marx's newspaper articles about India cemented their relationship. They spent many hours in the reading room of the British Museum seeking out and copying down Marx's writings. A couple of years after moving to Lahore, the couple undertook the first publication in book form of Marx's articles on India. It was a conspicuous contribution towards the growing interest in Marxism in South Asia. At the time the Bedis brought out Marx's Letters on India they were publishing a particularly impressive progressive quarterly. Contemporary India also touched on Marx and Marxism" ("The Lives of Freda Blog", 4/20/2019). Seller Inventory # 4212

Bibliographic Details

Title: Letters on India - First Complete Publication
Publisher: Contemporary India Publication, Model Town, Lahore
Publication Date: 1936
Binding: Soft cover
Condition: Fair
Edition: 1st Edition