39 Facts About Eleanor Marx

Jenny Julia Eleanor Marx, sometimes called Eleanor Aveling and known to her family as Tussy, was the English-born youngest daughter of Karl Marx.

Eleanor Marx was herself a socialist activist who sometimes worked as a literary translator.

Eleanor Marx was born in London on 16 January 1855, the sixth child and fourth daughter of Karl Marx and his wife Jenny von Westphalen.

Eleanor Marx was called "Tussy" by her family from a young age.

Eleanor Marx showed an early interest in politics, even writing to political figures during her childhood.

Marx invented and narrated a story for Eleanor based on an anti-hero called Hans Rockle.

Eleanor Marx edited Marx's lectures, Value, Price and Profit and Wage Labour and Capital, which were based on the same material, into books.

At the age of sixteen, Eleanor Marx became her father's secretary and accompanied him around the world to socialist conferences.

In May 1873, Eleanor Marx moved away from home to Brighton working as a schoolteacher.

Eleanor Marx lived at 6 Vernon Terrace in the suburb of Montpelier, returning to London in September 1873.

In 1876, Eleanor Marx helped Lissagaray write History of the Commune of 1871, and translated it into English.

Eleanor Marx's father liked the book but was still disapproving of his daughter's relationship with its author.

Eleanor Marx's mother died in December 1881 but, from August 1882, she cared for her young nephew Jean Longuet for several months, easing the burden on her elder sister, Jenny Longuet, who died in January 1883 of bladder cancer.

Eleanor Marx's father died two months later, in March 1883.

Eleanor Marx learned Yiddish and sometimes delivered lectures in the language.

In 1884, Eleanor Marx joined the Social Democratic Federation, led by Henry Hyndman, and was elected to its executive.

Eleanor Marx was, for example, opposed to Marx's idea of sending delegates to the French Workers' Party, calling the proposal a "family manoeuvre", given that Eleanor Marx's sister Laura and her husband Paul Lafargue were members of that party.

Therefore, both Eleanor Marx and Aveling became founding members of the Socialist League, the most prominent member of which was William Morris.

Eleanor Marx wrote a regular column, called "Record of the Revolutionary International Movement", for the Socialist League's monthly newspaper, Commonweal.

In 1884, Eleanor Marx met Clementina Black, a painter and trade unionist, and became involved in the Women's Trade Union League.

Eleanor Marx spoke to the Silvertown strikers at an open meeting in November 1889, alongside her friends Edith Ellis and Honor Brooke.

Eleanor Marx helped organise the Gasworkers' Union and wrote numerous books and articles.

Eleanor Marx and Aveling, as firm advocates of the principle of participation in political campaigns, found themselves in an uncomfortable minority in the party.

At the 4th Annual Conference of the Socialist League, the Bloomsbury branch, to which Eleanor Marx and Aveling belonged, moved that a meeting of all socialist bodies should be called to discuss the formation of a united organisation.

Several other demonstrations followed in the aftermath, with Eleanor Marx urging the radical line.

Eleanor Marx attended the founding conference as an observer, while Aveling was a delegate.

In 1897, Eleanor Marx and Aveling re-joined the Social Democratic Federation, like most former members of the Socialist League.

Eleanor Marx spent many days there, researching information and working on her translations.

Additionally, Eleanor Marx translated Reuben Sachs, by Amy Levy, into German.

Eleanor Marx was involved as a translator or editor in 14 known works.

Eleanor Marx learned Norwegian in order to translate Ibsen's plays into English and, in 1888, was the first to translate An Enemy of Society.

Eleanor Marx translated Ibsen's The Lady from the Sea in 1890.

In 1898, Eleanor Marx discovered that the ailing Edward Aveling had secretly married a young actress, to whom he remained committed.

Eleanor Marx's illness seemed to her to be terminal, and Eleanor was deeply depressed by the faithlessness of the man she loved.

On 31 March 1898, Eleanor Marx sent her maid to the local chemist with a note on which she signed the initials of the man the chemist knew as "Dr Aveling", asking for chloroform and a small quantity of hydrogen cyanide for her dog.

On receiving the package, Eleanor Marx signed a receipt for the poisons and sent the maid back to the chemist to return the receipt book.

Eleanor Marx then retired to her room, wrote two brief suicide notes, undressed, got into bed, and swallowed the poison.

However, he was widely reviled throughout the socialist community as having caused Eleanor Marx to take her life.

On 9 September 2008, an English Heritage blue plaque was placed on the house at 7 Jews Walk, Sydenham, south-east London, where Eleanor Marx spent the last few years of her life.