A Cleaned-Up Huck?

According to NPR, there are plans in the works to publish a cleaned up version of Huckleberry Finn, with no "N" word. Their rationale is that without that offensive word, it won't be banned from certain schools and more children will be able to read it.

I'm all for kids reading classic books. But part of reading classics means learning about historical context. Leave the book unaltered so that students can experience the book the way Twain wrote it. They can learn about 19th century attitudes towards African Americans and slavery.

Changing HF is akin to rewriting history Orwellian-style. That's how people spoke. That's what Twain wrote. Leave it be.