The Capital, A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production
by Karl Marx

First edition in English (Appleton issue), preceding the later Humboldt text in America by twenty months

Publisher and Year: New York: Appleton & Co., 1889
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Edition: First edition in English, Appleton issue. Translated from the third German edition by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling. The text is identical to the first British edition (London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1887) but was issued in one volume rather than two. About half of the 500 copies of the first British edition were exported to the United States, but the sheets were not altered to credit the American distributors (sometimes these copies are identifiable by later changes made by those firms).1 In 1889, the British publisher sold 500 sets of sheets to D. Appleton & Co. with a new title page bearing the imprint of the American firm.1 For this reason, the Appleton issue is often called the first American edition.

The Appleton copies have priority over the later and more common American edition (New York: The Humboldt Publishing Company). Whereas the Appleton copies were published in January 1889,2-4 the Humboldt edition was issued a full twenty months later, first in serialized wrappers (Sep-Oct 1890)5,6 and then in cloth by November.7,8 The Humboldt edition, which pirated the Moore-Aveling translation, was the first to be physically printed in America, and therefore has its own defensible claim to being the first American edition. 

Though the title of “first American edition” is debatable, priority and rarity are clear. The 1887 Swan edition is the earliest appearance of the text in the English language (500 copies), followed by the 1889 Appleton issue (500 copies), and then the 1890 Humboldt edition (~5,000 copies).1

The present work consists of the first and only volume to be fully written by Marx, with the next two installments completed by Engels and published in English in 1907 and 1909.
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Condition and Description: Thick octavo, publisher's ochre cloth stamped in gilt and blind, pale-yellow endpapers, 816 pp. Boards soiled, with some rubbing and handling wear. Tips bumped and exposed. Gilt still legible. Some stains to the edges of the text block, not intruding upon the text except for in one small instance on the upper part of the final blank. Hinges loose but holding, with splits to the endpapers at the gutters but the webbing remains intact (a common fault given the considerable weight and thickness of the text block). The text itself remains firmly bound, with all pages attached. Tanning to the first two blanks from something that had been laid in. Previous owner's name in ink to the third blank page (Louis Walldorf, a member of the Socialist Labor Party in the 1890s). No other writing or underlining. A few scattered instances of light foxing and finger smudging. Without any restoration or repair.

An 1899 card from The Labor Lyceum, a socialist organization based in Rochester, N.Y., is laid in. The card advertises an event ("The 'People's Parliament'") consisting of a series of lectures and open debates concerning questions "vital...to the working people." The card, in addition to ownership by a member of the Socialist Labor Party, reflects the use of this copy in the American socialist movement in the late nineteenth century. 
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Provenance: Louis Walldorf (b. 1832), a German immigrant, watchmaker, and socialist political activist. In March of 1892, Walldorf was nominated by his ward to be an executive board member of The Socialist Labor (SLP) party in Rochester, N.Y., where he resided. Later that year, the SLP nominated their first candidates for president and vice president of the United States, even though the official party platform was to abolish both offices. Walldorf remained a resident of Rochester throughout the 1890s, and The Labor Lyceum card was plausibly his given where the advertised event was held. 
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References:
  1. “Karl Marx, Capital, First American Editions.” Article issued by the Karl Marx Library in Luxembourg.
  2. The Publisher’s Weekly, 1888 (Dec 29). Vol 34, Issue 26. (Appleton's book listed under “Will publish next week.”)
  3. The Publisher’s Weekly, 1889 (Jan 12). Vol 35, Issue 2. (Appleton's book listed under “Just published”)
  4. The Daily Inter Ocean, 1889 (Jan 12). (Appleton's listed under “Books Received”)
  5. The Humboldt Library of Science issues of Marx’s The Capital (135-138). Parts dated Sep 1, Sep 15, Oct 1, and Oct 15 of 1890 on the front wrappers. Refer to the example sold by Swann Galleries on May 5th, 2022.
  6. Copies in wrappers were reprinted monthly from January 1891 to April 1891, with such copies bearing those dates on the front wrapper. Refer to the set listed by Antiquariat Inlibris. 
  7. The Nation, 1890 (November 6), Vol 51, Issue 1323. (Humboldt edition advertised at $1.20 [four parts in wrappers] and $1.75 [cloth])
  8. The Nation, 1890 (November 12), Vol 51, Issue 1324. (Humboldt edition advertised at $1.20 [four parts in wrappers] and $1.75 [cloth])
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Inventory ID: 694 - 650 - 736