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Authorship

Although the names of both Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx appear on the title page alongside the "persistent assumption of joint-authorship", Engels, in the preface introduction to the 1883 German edition of the Manifesto, said that the Manifesto was "essentially Marx's work" and that "the basic thought... belongs solely and exclusively to Marx."^[3]

There is evidence to suggest that Engels composed an earlier draft statement for a manifesto, which was then used as the basis for this later published document, the direct authorship of which can be attributed primarily to Marx.^[4] It is claimed in the text itself to have been sketched by a group of Communists from various countries that gathered together in London.^[5]