As appalling as racial epithets are to some people, even if it is used in the context of Huck Finn as is Twain's, it is still more appalling to some that one would alter Twain's work and publish it. Regardless of how you feel, someone from Auburn has done just that:
Next month, NewSouth Books is issuing a new edition of "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," Twain's classic depiction of the dehumanization of blacks in the Old South - minus the single word that most effectively makes the point. In its place in the new book will be the word "slave."
Alan Gribben, an Auburn University English professor, asked for the expurgated version because he found the N-word too uncomfortable in teaching. But its casual use makes Huck's growing realization that runaway slave Jim is a man, and a superlative one at that, a truly remarkable transformation. Which is why all 219 uses must stay in "Huck Finn."
