Karl Marx Library

The Karl Marx Library
Common dust jacket of Padover's "Karl Marx Library"
AuthorSaul K. Padover (ed.)
Cover artistRoger Ferriter
LanguageEnglish
Genrehistory
Published1971–1977
(in 7 volumes)
Publication placeUnited States

The Karl Marx Library is a topically-organized series of original translations and biographical commentaries edited by historian and Karl Marx scholar Saul K. Padover (1905–1981) and published by academic publisher McGraw-Hill Books. Originally projected as a 13-volume series at the time of its launch in 1971, ultimately only 7 volumes found print prior to Padover's death, supplemented by a biography and an unnumbered volume of selected correspondence.

The scholarly utility of the series was severely undermined by the 1975 launch of the 50-volume Marx-Engels Collected Works project jointly published by Progress Publishers of Moscow, International Publishers of New York City, and Lawrence and Wishart of London. The abruptly-terminated series proved to be a short-lived focal point for Marx scholarship during the first half of the decade of the 1970s.

The formal Karl Marx Library series was terminated in 1977, with two tangential volumes by Padover subsequently published during the last years of his life, including a full-length biography of Marx.