Masking Huck's Lesson
A new version of Huckleberry Finn has been issued; throughout, nigger is replaced with slave. From The Autobiography of Mark Twain, posted at Newsweek:
“Do you banish all books that are likely to defile young morals, or do you stop with Huck?”
“We do not discriminate; we banish all that are hurtful to young morals.”
I picked up a book, and said—
“I see several copies of this book lying around. Are the young forbidden to read it?”
“The Bible? Of course not.”
“Why not?”
“That is a strange question to ask.”
“Very well, then I withdraw it. Are you acquainted with the passages in Huck which are held to be objectionable?”
He said he was; and at my request he took pen and paper and proceeded to write them down for me. Meantime I stepped to a desk and wrote down some extracts from the Bible. I showed them to him and said I would take it as a favor if he would attach his extracts to mine and post them on the wall, so that the people could examine them and see which of the two sets they would prefer to have their young boys and girls read.