Remembering Karl Marx: Of obituaries, epitaphs and sundry mix-ups

In its time, Marx's life hardly looked like the watershed in the history of the modern world it has proved to be since his death, writes Anjan Basu

On September 6, 1871, the New York Times ran an obituary of Karl Marx, “the ostensible leader of the famous International Society in Europe”.

“The celebrity of Dr Marx”, the notice observed, “is only of recent date, though his life was full of adventure, like all other political conspirators…”

That the Times was not inordinately fond of ‘Dr Marx’ is brought home by sundry other comments studding the article as well: that “he frequently rendered himself obnoxious to those who happened to differ with him”; and that “it was only a short time since he threatened to shoot the editor of the