Eleanor Marx
Eleanor Marx (
16 January 1855 â€"
31 March 1898) was a
Marxist author and
political activist.
Born in
London, she was the youngest daughter of
Karl Marx and
Jenny von Westphalen. After being taught at home by her father, she became his
secretary, and then a
schoolteacher in
Brighton. Her first significant relationship was with
Hippolyte Lissagaray the
Communard and author of the
History of the Commune of 1871 about the
Paris Commune. Her father disapproved and the relationship foundered.
In
1884, she joined the
Social Democratic Federation and was elected to its executive, spending much of her time lecturing on
socialism. Later in the year became a founding member of the rival
Socialist League, as did her then partner,
Edward Aveling.
In the late
1880s and
1890s, Marx became a
trade union activist, supporting
strikes such as the
Bryant & May strike and the
London Dock Strike of 1889. She helped organise the
Gasworkers' Union and wrote numerous books and articles.
She also translated various literary works, including
Gustave Flaubert's
Madame Bovary, as well as
Henrik Ibsen'
The Lady from the Sea and
An Enemy of the People.
In
1898, she discovered Aveling had secretly married a young actress. He proposed a
suicide pact, which he never intended to follow through. Instead, he supplied her with
prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide), which she then used to kill herself, and left the house. Although he was widely reviled for his actions, no charges were laid against him.
*
Eleanor Marx Internet Archive, at
Marxists.org*
Spartacus on Eleanor Marx*
Free ebook of Eleanor Marx at
Project Gutenberg*
Eleanor Marx on Women of Brighton site
