I was perusing some correspondence between Marx and Engels, when one of the missives ended in the following manner:
Now, being somewhat curious as to what could make old Charlie break out in such ovation, titters, and mirth, I attempted to find the gentleman Dr. Magnus Gross on the net, but lo! He was nowhere to be found. The only vaguely possible reference to anyone by such name at such time was a note at the end of a speech by Twain that gave a Magnus Gross as one of the other speakers at the same event.
Would anyone on the boards have any deeper information as regards the identity and biography of the man in question. More than anything; was he so rip roaring hilarious as Moor seemed to think?
I don’t know anything about the man himself, but it could be Marx was just playing around with his name. Since magnus = great in Latin and gross (usually with ess-tset) = great in German, his name means “great great”. Sort of like “chai tea”.
Marx takes the wordplay into French ‘gros’ which could have been a comment on the man’s corpulence, or the length of his writings. I’d guess the latter, since he calls him “Tellering II” with what might be another size joke, fitting him in a nutshell. ‘Tellering’ is Eduard v. Mueller-Tellering, see here for one of Marx’s letters to him.
The Germans are crack-brained jackasses. - K. Marx
panamjack, although you make an astute analysis of Marx wit, I would surmise that he wouldn’t tell old Fred that he was sending a bundle of letters just to make a wisecrack on a name.
wasnt he a bit of a pisshead by all accounts? like you can go on the Karl Marx pub crawl every year with all the marxists ont he anniversary of his death.