Editing Twain

     New South Books in Montgomery is combining two Mark Twain stories in a single volume in which the "N-word" has been replaced with the word "slave".

     The "N" word is used a couple of hundred times in the stories.

     Publisher Randal Williams---who used to work at the Southern Poverty Law Center---is working on the project, with an an Auburn University Montgomery Professor and Twain scholar. The book is due on bookshelves in February.

     One of those awful "online polls" in the Washington Post has just under two-thousand voters almost unanimous in their condemnation of the racially sensitive work substitution. Censorship!, they're screaming, though I wonder how many of them felt the same way about "Heather Has Two Mommies"?

     I say as long as the change is noted somewhere in the book, change away. New South also changed "Injuns" to "Indians".

     You can watch the AUM professor's comments about the editing at the CBS-8 website here.



[NOTE: The New York Times editorializes against the new volume.]