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Born in London, she was the youngest daughter of Karl Marx. After being taught at home by her father, she became his secretary, and then a schoolteacher in Brighton. While still in her teens, she wrote her first book, History of the Commune of 1871 about the Paris Commune with her lover Hippolyte Lissagaray.
She returned to look after her parents in their last years, and organised the publication of Das Kapital in English. In 1884, she joined the Social Democratic Federation and was elected to its executive, spending much of her time lecturing on socialism. Later in the year became a founder member of the rival Socialist League, as did her then partner, Edward Aveling.
In the late 1880s and 1890s, Marx became a trade union activist, supporting strikes such as the Bryant & May strike and the 1889 Dockers’ Strike. She helped organise the National Union of Gas Workers and General Labourers and wrote numerous books and articles.
Marx committed suicide in 1898, soon after discovering Aveling had secretly married someone else.