# What made Marx chuckle? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 12, 2002, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-made-marx-chuckle/118685 "2002-07-12T20:40:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sparc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Sparc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparc)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2002, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-made-marx-chuckle/118685/1 "2002-07-12T20:40:09Z")
I was perusing some correspondence between Marx and Engels, when one of the missives ended in the following manner: > [@](#): > > _Marx to Engels, letter of 7 January 1851_ > > Having bored you with this muck, **I am sending you by way of comic relief the enclosed bundle of letters from Dr Magnus Gross (doubly great Great! Greatest of the Great!) of Cincinnati.** You will see that if Monsieur Gross is not grand, he is nevertheless gros. Tellering II in nuce. [in miniature] These Coblenzers are all alike! Send the things back to me with, if you have the time and the inclination, a line or two for Dronke. > > Your > K. M. > Emphasis added 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? Sparc ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2002, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-made-marx-chuckle/118685/2 "2002-07-12T21:31:03Z")
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](http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/letters/48_12_05.htm) for one of Marx’s letters to him. * * * The Germans are crack-brained jackasses. - K. Marx ---
**Author:** ![Sparc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Sparc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparc)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2002, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-made-marx-chuckle/118685/3 "2002-07-12T21:59:13Z")
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. Sparc ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Friendly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Mr\_Friendly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Friendly)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2002, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-made-marx-chuckle/118685/4 "2002-07-12T22:56:38Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Sparc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Sparc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparc)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2002, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-made-marx-chuckle/118685/5 "2002-07-12T23:01:35Z")
Not that I was aware of, Mr\_Friendly. Re Marxist pub crawls I am as we speak a virgin. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2002, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-made-marx-chuckle/118685/6 "2002-07-12T23:47:12Z")
He was a noted teacher from New York. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2002, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-made-marx-chuckle/118685/7 "2002-07-13T00:09:03Z")
So Sparc: Have you picked up Francis Wheen’s biography on KM? I heartily recommend it. Om du bor i Stockholm så tror jag Hedengrens har den.