Librarian of the Year disagrees with Huckleberry Finn edits

January 5, 2011 @ 8:20 am (Updated: 1:30 pm - 3/28/11 )

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Mark Twain. (AP Photo/File) | Zoom
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By JEFF POHJOLA
KIRO Radio

A former Seattle librarian just named Librarian of the Year says she finds an upcoming revised edition of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn "distressing."

In NewSouth Book's new edition, they will replace the "n-word" and "injun" with the word slave.

"I think it's a mistake, because books are written at a particular time in history, and we need to read them with the knowledge that they're written at those times," says Nancy Pearl, a former Seattle librarian, just named Librarian of the Year by Library Journal. "This is the way the world was then, and this is the way the world is now, when that kind of language isn't acceptable."

Pearl told KIRO Radio's Frank Shiers that if readers are offended by the use of such language in the book they simply don't get it.

>>Listen to Nancy Pearl on Northwest Nights with Frank Shiers

"It's not used in a hectoring sort of way, but it's a way that reveals the way the country was at that time," says Pearl. "Reading Huck Finn, as painful as it could be, and is for some people, because of the language that Twain uses. I think those are teaching moments, those are discussion moments."

Pearl says despite the publisher's good intentions, it's still the political correctness police trampling on a literary classic.

"To rewrite history, the way that they're doing that, I think is distressing."

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Comments (31)


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  • OneMoreVoice wrote...
    I am not racist in any sense of the word but I think
    January 5, 2011 8:31 am
    it is wrong to change a book written in the 1800's just to appease the PC crowd of today. Would these same nutcases change the bible? Not very likely. I say leave the book as it was written.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Raining Sideways wrote...
    I Agree....
    January 5, 2011 8:59 am
    There are lessons to teach our children about history and how people behaved in the past. When you sanitize history you miss out on teachable moments and insure history will be repeated.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • oldreliable wrote...
    no racist here but
    January 5, 2011 9:15 am
    LEAVE THE BOOK ALONE! ...... if you dont like the book and the language then dont read it .... just more nonsense
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • hnuh wrote...
    this
    January 5, 2011 9:19 am
    is one reason why, when learning about events in history one needs to read material written as near as possible to the time the event took place. Generally, quality books of history don't have a lot of obvious P/C revisionism in them up until the 1960's. Histories written from about 1970 to the present have to be taken with a very large grain of salt as extremist political correctness originated among academics.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Steve Dallas wrote...
    Political Correctness is ruining this country
    January 5, 2011 9:22 am
    Huckleberry Finn is a classic book. Though it uses words that most people wouldn't use in polite society today, these were words and idioms that were used at the time this book was written. Changing a classic book because people are offended that the n-word was used back then is pointless and stupid.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • labdad wrote...
    It's pretty bad when a newspaper types "n-word"
    January 5, 2011 9:26 am
    I think treating a word as if it was "He who must not be Named" of Harry Potter fame is a mistake.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • edh wrote...
    Agree with labdad
    January 5, 2011 9:45 am
    I was thinking the same thing. I also think it's funny they still say "injun". Why not "i-word"? Heck, we should all just start speaking in code! This one day I went to the c-word and p-worded to g-word and j-word that they would take the n-word and i-word out of Huckleberry Finn. H-word! G-word and j-word answered my p-word! ...pretty foolish if you ask me.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Aravani77 wrote...
    it is not about political correctness
    January 5, 2011 10:05 am
    I'm sorry, but I could care less about the argument that this is political correctness run amok. That is an argument that is based on opinions and I don't think goes to the heart of the problem. The problem is that it is an authored work. Twain wrote the book this way, those are his words, his thoughts, his ideas. For some publisher to come back many many years later and rewrite the book is an insult to Mark Twain and a scary thought to any author. Books should be left alone as they were written. Twain used the n-word, Ariel dies in little mermaid, and Quasimodo dosen't have a happy ending. Time to stop rewritting authors works and let them stand.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • mikeyg2000 wrote...
    right on, Pearl
    January 5, 2011 10:17 am
    it is a disgusting word, but she is right about the PC police.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • eric von zipper wrote...
    funny...
    January 5, 2011 10:36 am
    ...how they're concerned about this word in a century+ old book while it peppers every other rap song that came out last week.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
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