The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Written by Mark Twain
Illustrations by Eric Powell
Hardback
IDW Publishing
Release Date: January 24, 2012

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as adapted by Eric Powell is more than just a newly illustrated accompaniment to Mark Twain‘s classic novel. Recently, new editions of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn have been released replacing the controversial language of the 19th century original. However, publisher IDW and artist Eric Powell made the conscious decision to release this adaptation as it was initially published. This illustrated version represents an independent publisher rejecting the idea of censoring an American classic. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn illustrated by Eric Powell is a wonderful way to revisit this piece of classic American literature.

In honor of Mark Twain‘s 176th birthday today, Google has created for their home page a doodle depicting the famous fence painting scene from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. While it may seem like an odd milestone to celebrate, the fact is, nothing else of note has ever happened on this date in American history.

So, let’s whoop it up for Twain, for his life’s work has entertained multiple generations with his unique vernacular and poignant social commentary that some well-intentioned lunatics would like to censor at this late stage (we’ve already read it, anyhow, so ha-ha on them).

Next month will see the release of NewSouth Books’ Mark Twain’s Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn: The Texts of His Companion Boy Books, which collects the two 19th century classics and revises them to remove an offensive word that, for years now, has been the cause of protests against teaching the books in schools.

The word?: ‘nigger.*’

In NewSouth’s edition, which was revised by Mark Twain scholar Dr. Alan Gribben, all instances of the word ‘nigger’ have been replaced by the word ‘slave’, as has the word ‘injun’, a derogatory term for Native Americans.

Gribben, who is passionate about Twain’s works, told Publishers Weekly he’s not trying to render these works “colorblind,” but that “Race matters in these books. It’s a matter of how you express that in the 21st century.”