160 years on, the British Library has acquired what is believed to be the only complete copy of the first edition of The Communist Manifesto to be held in the UK, and the only copy in the world to be held by a national library.
Despite its later fame, the slim 23-page pamphlet by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels had limited impact at the time. Although several hundred copies were distributed, fewer than 30 copies of the first edition are known to have survived. The British Library’s acquisition will ensure that a copy of this landmark document is preserved in the city of its birth, where it can be seen and studied in the Library’s Reading Rooms at St. Pancras.
Source: The British Library
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