Portrait of Eleanor Marx

Birthday profile

Eleanor Marx

English-born activist and daughter of Karl Marx (1855–1898)

Born
January 16, 1855
Died
March 31, 1898
Zodiac sign
Capricorn
Birth year
1855

About Eleanor Marx

Jenny Julia Eleanor Marx (16 January 1855 – 31 March 1898), sometimes called Eleanor Marx-Aveling and known to her family as Tussy, was an English writer, translator, activist, and the youngest daughter of Karl Marx. A key proponent of socialism, she translated her father's writings and helped spread his philosophical ideas. Additionally, she worked as a literary translator. She is particularly noted for her 1886 translation of Gustave Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary, which she introduced to the English-speaking world and became a global bestseller. She also translated several of Henrik Ibsen's plays, including An Enemy of the People in 1888 and The Lady from the Sea in 1890. In March 1898, after discovering that her partner Edward Aveling had secretly married the previous year, she poisoned herself at the age of 43 and was buried in Highgate Cemetery alongside her father and other members of the Marx family. While Karl Marx was writing his major work, Das Kapital, in the family home, his youngest daughter Eleanor played in his study. Marx invented and narrated a story for Eleanor based on an anti-hero called Hans Röckle. Eleanor Marx's biographer, Rachel Holmes, writes: "Tussy's childhood intimacy with whilst he wrote the first volume of Das Kapital provided her with a thorough grounding in British economic, political and social history. At the age of sixteen, Eleanor became her father's secretary and accompanied him around the world to socialist conferences.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

The world when Eleanor Marx was born

Eleanor Marx was born in 1855. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1855

  • Best-selling bookLeaves of Grass by Walt Whitman

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineBleeding Kansas — pro and anti-slavery violence
  • Technology milestoneBessemer steel process invented
  • World population~1.35B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderFranklin Pierce
  • U.S. population26.4M

1855 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Eleanor Marx's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18552026
Population26.4M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Library of Congress. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

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