A publisher is releasing a new version of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, excising the “n” word from the text. The move comes as a reaction to censorship-minded public schools, which have methodically banished the book from English curriculum.

Publishers Weekly reports NewSouth eliminated 219 uses of the word in the book.

“This is not an effort to render Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn colorblind,” said the Twain scholar who came up with the idea. “Race matters in these books. It’s a matter of how you express that in the 21st century.”

If you’ve read the book, would the loss of the “n” word alter your appreciation of Twain’s opus? Do you think the benefits of reaching a larger audience with “cleaned up” text offset the damage in altering a masterpiece?

Upcoming NewSouth ‘Huck Finn’ Eliminates the ‘N’ Word [Publishers Weekly via San Francisco Chronicle]