Midwest Chick's Place

French, Dutch, and US publishers have told the Brits that they will not be changing Roald Dahl’s books to make them more ‘sensitive’.

A spokesperson for Dahl’s U.S. publisher Penguin Young Readers told PW that there are no plans for similar revisions in the U.S. “Roald Dahl books published by Penguin Young Readers and distributed in the U.S. are the editions that have existed for years and do not reflect the recent editorial changes made in U.K. editions. Penguin Young Readers regularly reviews its backlist and Dahl titles will be reviewed accordingly.” According to the Daily Mail in the U.K., Dahl’s Dutch publisher De Fonte and French publisher Gallimard are also declining to make changes at this time. A spokesperson for De Fonte is quoted as saying that altering the text would cause the stories to “lose their power.” Gallimard shared this statement with the newspaper: “We have never changed Roald Dahl’s writings before, and we have no plans to do so today.”

This was a first shot across the bow to see if they could get away with it.  Expect more, and I would guess that some of this has already been done that we don’t know about.

I have my paper copies of Fahrenheit 451 and1984 safely stashed away as well as stories I read as a child.