Karl Marx and the Lost California Manifesto

Blending sharp wit, adventure, and historical imagination, Karl Marx and the Lost California Manifesto by Scott D. Carlson takes readers on a spirited journey through the chaos of the California Gold Rush, pairing one of history’s great thinkers with an unlikely teenage companion.

In 1849, Karl Marx escapes debtors’ prison by boarding a ship bound for California, determined to find gold for both himself and The Revolution. In San Francisco, he crosses paths with Sixto—a clever, restless young man raised by padres in a mission and now fleeing a deranged shipwrecked sailor. The two strike an improbable alliance and head into the Sierra Nevada, where they find themselves swept up in a world of reckless miners, eccentric outcasts, and moral contradictions. Pursued by bumbling Prussian agents desperate to retrieve Marx’s Manifesto, the pair encounters everything from naked argonauts and Miwok tribes to a mountain man philosopher and the notorious outlaw Joaquin Murrieta. As Marx confronts greed and survival on the frontier, his ideals are tested by the raw realities of human nature, and Sixto—our resilient narrator—must decide whether the dream of freedom can survive the world’s chaos.

Scott D. Carlson brings humor, depth, and humanity to this reimagined slice of history. Having worked as a lawyer, teacher, Army cook, and more, he writes with empathy for people on the margins and an eye for irony in life’s absurdities. A graduate of New York University’s Creative Writing program, Carlson lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where California’s landscape and contradictions continue to inspire his storytelling. Learn more on his website.

Amazon: https://bit.ly/4nWC6nK

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/242443484-karl-marx-and-the-lost-

california-manifesto

Debt, danger, and a dash of revolution.When Karl Marx flees London for Gold Rush California, he finds more than fortune—he finds trouble, chaos, and a teenage runaway with a knack for survival.

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Writing Process & Creativity

How did you research your book?

I’m lucky to have a good public library, and access to a university library, that both have a lot of books containing first-hand accounts by “49ers,” of their experiences coming to California and what it was like in the mountains. A lot of these books are online, via the Internet Archive or Project Gutenberg, which are great resources.

What’s the hardest scene or character you wrote—and why?

I think the “action” scenes in the book are difficult. For example, the duel, and later Sixto and Marx roping the Prussians. I want readers to be able to “see” these clearly in their imaginations, so you have to be pretty detailed about who does what in space, and when and how, etc.

Where do you get your ideas?

The idea for this book came from reading a biography of Marx. In 1850, he and Friedrich Engels both seriously considered coming to America, but were so broke they couldn’t afford the boat fare. I had to wonder: What if he had come?  Reading about gold miners’ lives also gave me more ideas than I could handle.

What helps you overcome writer’s block?

Ego. Seriously, the writer Flannery O’Connor said something like “Just get behind your machine!” And another writer, E.L. Doctorow, who I studied with, said that he was sitting at his desk staring at a wall, started writing about the wall, and it turned into his novel Ragtime.

Your Writing Life

Do you write every day? What’s your schedule?

I try to write every morning, Monday to Friday, for anywhere from 2 to 4 hours, sometimes a little longer. Weekends are mostly reserved for other parts of my life.

Where do you write—home, coffee shop, train?

I can’t write anywhere but home, and when I’m there, not anywhere but in the little world of my “office.” With the two doors closed. I can stare out the window there, at a bunch of oak trees.

Behind the Book

If your book became a movie, who would star in it?

Good question, but tough. The real Marx would have been 31 years old in 1849. If Timothy Chalamet can pull off Bob Dylan, he could maybe do Marx. I haven’t really watched the show, but I’m wondering if a couple of the guys in Reservation Dogs could play Sixto. He’s just as important, or more so, than Marx.

Which author(s) most inspired you?

There’s a whole host of them, but to name a few: J.M. Coetzee; Saul Bellow, John Updike, Joan Didion, Hilary Mantel; Vladimir Nabokov, and Richard Ford.

Fun & Lighthearted Qs

What’s your go-to comfort food?

I’m a chocoholic. But for “real” food I like…beans and lentils? And eggs. Do they count?

What are you binge-watching right now?

I don’t do a lot of bingeing, but recently I did do season three of The White Lotus. I was prepared to not like it, but I got hooked. I thought it was much better than season one.

If you could time-travel, where would you go?

If I knew I would survive them, almost any of the epic early sea voyages, like Magellan’s and Drake’s circumnavigations, or Cook’s voyages. But the food would have been horrible. No comfort food there.

What 3 books would you bring to a desert island?

The American Heritage Dictionary, so I wouldn’t forget my language, and, believe it or not, entertain myself with it. Probably a complete collection of New Yorker cartoons, for when I need a laugh. And “The Yale Shakespeare,” his complete works.

What’s something that made you laugh this week?

A sentence that I wrote in a novella I’m now writing. It’s a good sign, I think, if I can laugh at my own writing.