Rewriting Great Literature To Fit Today's Standards

There is an interesting controversy involving literature and censorship involving publisher NewSouth Books in Alabama and a Mark Twain scholar named Alan Gribben. It's political correctness perhaps gone wild. You can judge it yourself as to whether it is correct action or just a politically correct one. NewSouth Books announced it will publish the combined works of the 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' and 'Tom Sawyer" without the disparaging racial word, "nigger" replacing it with "slave" in an effort not to offend readers. Yep! They are rewriting Mark Twain's novels to fit the sensibilities of today.

The word 'nigger' (commonly used and accepted at the time Twain wrote the book) appears 219 times in Huck Finn and four times in Tom Sawyer. Most English teachers and have defended it as a realistic portrayal of the language at the time and not as a current commentary on a race of people. Yet Gribben is uncomfortable with it and says that "I want to provide an option for teachers and other people not comfortable with 219 instances of that word."

The question begs answering. Should literature be rewritten to fit contemporary standards or should it be left as written for the reader to absorb and evaluate? I choose the former position and feel it is more offensive to censor and edit an author's works than to leave the writing as written, even if some are offended by it. This move to edit history without an uproar from the academic community (very few academic types are opposing the re written version for fear of being branded "racists") is the type of thing that makes it so difficult hold a profession in general respect. I guess those in favor of the changes will also advocate censoring the bible. It is far more offensive than Twain ever was in it's use language and by any definition would not be considered to be politically correct.

And this censorship is not for "children" ( though I think works of literature should ever be censored). Gribben intends his version to be for all. Even in the case of children who read Twain, the censorship is hard to justify. Any child old enough to read Twain will already have been exposed to "niggger" countless times in medium, personal conversation and more. If troubled by the references, the child could be given a simple explanation about context use would clarify why the word appears, and if taught to students any competent literature teacher will broach the subject.

So is this useful classical revision or classic political correctness gone wrong?