Aveling, Edward Bibbins

(1849–1898)

   Aveling has achieved a certain notoriety for the apparently unscrupulous and even cruel way in which he conducted his personal life. He lived with Karl Marx’s daughter Eleanor Marx for 14 years, during which time he had numerous affairs. After leaving Eleanor and marrying another woman he assisted a despairing Eleanor to commit suicide, but only after he had ensured her will was changed in his favor. Personal life aside, Aveling was active for many years in the labor movement helping link the British labor movement to continental Marxists through the Second International. He was involved in the Social Democratic Federation and Socialist League, and was a founder member of the Independent Labour Party. For a brief time he was viewed as a if not the leading interpreter of Marxism in Great Britain. His most significant contribution, though, is perhaps as cotranslator of the first English edition of the first volume of Das Kapital (Capital).