Alan Gribben Defends His Edited Mark Twain Volume

Professor Alan Gribben defended his politically-corrected volume of Mark Twain‘s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer in different news outlets. He explained that his version of Twain’s works with two racial slurs removed will provide “a more palatable reading experience,” reaching classrooms and personal libraries where the work had been banned.

Here’s more from an article in The Birmingham News: “The Mark Twain guild has brought pretty universal condemnation, but I hope they might soften their views once the book comes out and they read my introduction and my reasons … I’m not going to apologize for this. I want readers to have this as an option.”

The New York Times rounded up commentary from nine different writers about the controversy. In addition, Stephen Colbert shared his thoughts on the new edition–the video is embedded above.