Date: Tue, 16 Apr 1996 23:37:47 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: Biography of Marx


On Tue, 16 Apr 1996, Philip Locker wrote:

> Can any one suggest a good biography of Marx.  I know about Merhings, but I
> am looking for something more recent since many facts about his life/his
> work (e,g. manuscripts of 1844, Grundrisse, etc.) only became known more
> recently...

The best is still David McLellan's Karl Marx (1971). Jerrold Siegal has a
interesting book called Marx, the Shape of A (His?) Life. There's a new
book out by Frank Manuel called A Reqyiem for K.M. that I haven't read.
The title is not promising, byt he wrote a very good psychobiography of
Newton. A shorter introduction to the Life and Thought is Isaiah Berlin's
brilliant Karl Marx, an oldie but a very goodie. Mehring is pretty good,
though, given its limitations.

> 
> Any good biographys of Luxemberg or Lenin?
> 
Luxemburg: A contemporay work by a comrade is Paul Froelich's bio. Peter
Nettl's Rosa Luxemburg is probably the standard work.A recent more
feminist take is Elzvieta Ettinger's R/L, a Life.

There are no good bios of Lenin. Unfortunately Deutscher died
before he wrote his. Trotsky's Young Lenin is very interesting
for the period it covers, and The Russian Revolution is good on L for that
period too. Louis Fischer's Life of Lenin and Betram Wolfe's Three Who
Made a REvolution areolder works by ex and anti-Communists who want to
connect L with Stalin. Christopher Hill has a short piece of hagiography
with some embarassing Stalinist effusions. Moshe Lewin's Lenin's last
Struggle is good on the final years. For the whole picture, probably
Robert Service's Lenin: A Political Life (3 vols) is best, representing
the latest scholarship. I wouldn't subscribe to his point of view, though. 

> --
> Philip Locker
> 
> 
> 
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