Socialism: Utopian and Scientific of thousands of copies. Throughout the decade of the 1860s, Karl Marx, close personal friend and political associate of Friedrich Engels, dedicated himself to the study of economics, culminating in the publication of the first volume of "Das Kapital" in 1867. Marx's lengthy and ponderous volume was extremely difficult for the average to penetrate, however, leading Engels to suggest to Marx in a letter of September 16, 1868 that a short popularized version of "Das Kapital" for a working class audience was urgently needed. "If it is not written, some Moses or other will come along and do it and
Edward Aveling daughter of Karl Marx, and thus was thrust into the inner circle of British socialism. Later in 1884, Aveling and Eleanor were both elected to the Executive Council of the Social Democratic Federation. This position proved temporary, because the couple separated from the SDF at the end of the year along with William Morris and Belfort Bax in the acrimonious split which formed the Socialist League. In 1884, Frederick Engels enlisted Aveling to help in translating the first volume of Karl Marx's book "Das Kapital." Aveling also achieved some small success as a playwright under the pen-name Alec Nelson. In