Re: Helena Demuth

[Katha Pollitt <kpollitt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Oh right, helena demuth's  " absolute rectitude of character" and
"ceaseless thoughtfulness to others."  Like poor Mrs. Marx, I suppose,
whom I'm sure was delighted to have her husband fucking the help.
 Trust one man to cover up for another! and there's Engels, who was
extremely rich, showering Demuth with praise for her important role in
politics and marx's thinking-- but he hires her to be his housekeeper
anyway, when she's an old lady (as one would be at that time) of 63 who
had worked since she was a teenager. No pension for this big working
class thinker!
  I wonder whose bright idea it was to put helena D in the same grave as
the marxes, as if Marx was some polygynous pasha.

Katha

the role of the big guy's girlfriend in left politics is a rich and
unexplored subject. Definitely the best way to get into  the important
meetings back in the 60s. Wonder if that's still true.

engels told eleanor Marx about freddy after the marxes were dead.
Eleanor looked him up and they became good friends.

I wonder who raised Freddy -- if eleanor didn't know about him that must
mean Helena had him in secret (the  months Engels mentions that she was
apart from the Marxes). Did Helena give him up to be raised by others as
servants almost always did at that time, when sexual impropriety meant
losing your job and ending up as a prostitute? It's really an inhumane
story when you read between the lines. and to have it all presented by
engels as a story about political comrades!  It's too much.