The new Translated Dialect Edition, Illustrated of Tom Sawyer is now available from Black Belt Press!

“A welcome alternative for schools and teachers.”–Mark Twain Forum, May 2025

Alan Gribben and Irene Wong have co-edited the Translated Dialect Edition, Illustrated of Huckleberry Finn. Alan previously edited the Original Language Editions and NewSouth Editions (the latter omitting racial invectives) in 2011. He continued to teach at the university level until 2019 when he retired as professor emeritus after 45 years in the classroom in California, New York, Texas, and Alabama. His last years of teaching Huckleberry Finn in Alabama reached about 1200 students who opted for the NewSouth Edition by 80 percent. White and Black students alike admitted that they did not like reading the racial slurs. Alan’s classes were usually 40 to 50 percent African American. On days when he taught Huckleberry Finn after the publication of the NewSouth Edition, attendance by African Americans improved over previous years. Problems remained, however.

“Even readers who understand that enforced illiteracy lies behind the ungrammatical speech of enslaved characters can feel discouraged by the uncomfortable fact that the only incomprehensible dialogue in the novel is spoken by the Black figures. A solution to this dilemma is feasible for readers willing to accept a minor editorial compromise. Minimal emendations in the tortuous verbiage of characters denied schoolroom education by enslavement clarify their thoughts and yet retain the flavor of nineteenth-century rural speech patterns. Those slight modifications also reveal their stoic practicality and shrewd logic.”–Editors’ Introduction, pp. xi-xii