Georgette Heyer and The Grand Sophy
So Georgette Heyer, it seems, is no longer an antisemite.
Of course that’s ridiculous. Georgette Heyer is exactly as antisemitic as she ever was–at least, her books are.
In The Grand Sophy (which happens to be the only Heyer book I’ve read; it was enjoyable) the moneylender is no longer swarthy, greasy, and named Goldhanger. He’s now just named Grimpstone. He still has an ingratiating leer, for whatever that’s worth.
I have mixed feelings about this. If these changes, made with the permission of her estate, mean that a new reader can float through the book without getting smacked in the face by a truly ugly, damaging, and hurtful stereotype, that seems to be a net good for society.
And yet….
When Mary Bly, a novelist and scholar, wrote an introduction to the book explaining the changes and why they’d been made, the publisher balked. Bly withdrew from the project, along with her introduction. That does bother me.
To make the changes–maybe.
To refuse to discuss or acknowledge the changes–a problem.
We gain something when hurtful stereotypes are removed. We lose something when we refuse to–or are not allowed to–acknowledge that Georgette Heyer might have been a talented writer who portrayed smart, independent women (for the time period and genre in which she wrote) and a bigot at the same time.
We lose the ability to think about books and writers and ourselves with nuance. Maybe we begin to think that the only people who harbor bias are villains as one-dimensional as Goldhanger/Grimpstone–not lively writers of light fiction who gave a lot of pleasure to the world. Not people we admire. Not people who might look a bit like us.
Read MoreTo Think That I Saw It In Congress
Despite a 28-year career in children’s publishing, I have NEVER HEARD OF THIS BOOK until this week. Just saying.
All I can say is, a lot of my books are out of print, and nobody has ever complained about it in the halls of Congress.
Okay, that’s not actually all I have to say.
Nobody has cancelled Dr. Seuss. Nobody has censored his books. No arm of government or political party is involved in any way.
The publisher (presumably in concert with his estate) has chosen not to issue new editions of six books. They say it is because the images contain hurtful stereotypes. (This is true. I’ve enjoyed If I Ran the Zoo, but those so-called Africans with their grass skirts and ape-like faces–really, Ted?)
This is normal. It’s business as usual. Publishers put books out of print all the time, because the books failed to connect with an audience, because they’ve become dated and readers don’t get them anymore, because (shh!) they were never that good in the first place. And–here’s the big reason, actually the only reason–because they aren’t selling that well. Because the books aren’t profitable.
Dr. Seuss Enterprises (an arm of Penguin Random House) failed to mention this, but believe me–if those books were selling like hotcakes, they’d still be in print. They’re not. Possibly because people are not lining up to buy books with hurtful stereotypes in them. Possibly because there are better books out there, some of them written by Dr. Seuss himself.
It’s the free market in action, folks. There’s no or little demand. So there’s no new supply.
Look, Ted Geisel was an immensely talented author and illustrator. He wasn’t a saint. He wasn’t perfection incarnate. And he doesn’t have some sort of constitutional right to have his books in print forever. (If so, I wish I could figure out how to get that right for myself. Alas, I don’t think it exists.)
If you are passionately devoted to On Beyond Zebra or McElligot’s Pool, you can still read them. Knock yourself out. Libraries and used bookstores still have copies. They haven’t vanished from the world of literature. It’s simply that there are not going to be new editions rolling off the press.
It’s not shocking. It’s not a problem. It’s a publisher responding to what people in 2021 want to read.
(P.S. Please feel free to also read picture books by Kevin Henkes, Barbara Cooney, Kwame Alexander, Mo Willems, Sophie Blackall and … I don’t know, maybe me? Dr. Seuss is not the only talented and brilliant author out there. There are so very many excellent children’s books being written and illustrated and published. The kids will be fine.)
Read MoreJust How White Is Publishing?
Bearded dslr photographer with tattooes on his arms over school desk background.
So very, very, white.
This article from the New York Times is worth reading in its entirety, but to sum up a few key points: Of fiction books published by one of the large houses between 1950-2018, the author’s race/ethnicity could be identified for 7124 books. 95% of those were written by white people. In 2018, 11% of the books in the sample were written by authors of color. According to a 2019 survey, 85% of the people who acquire and edit books are white.
It’s not a perfect study (the authors of the article freely admit) because nobody actually tracks this stuff. How many books this year were written by African-Americans? How many last year were by Latnix writers? Nobody knows. Nobody’s counting.
I particularly appreciate that this article points up the whiteness of the editorial profession as one of the roadblocks to publishing book by writers of color. (Unmentioned is the fact that publishing is so poorly paid…if you want to start out as an editorial assistant, it helps immensely to have no student loans or family who can give you a boost when it comes to renting a studio in New York. And of course there’s a correlation with race.) I also appreciate calling the tendency of publishers to underpay non-white authors and illustrators (although, to be frank, I’m reeling at the advances some writers of adult books get.)
It’s a valuable article. Go read it.
And I’ll add one thought of my own: the article looks at authors (they forgot illustrators, but there you go…a lot of people, when writing about publishing, forget the younger end of things), editors, publishers…but they didn’t mention readers.
Readers have been eating up books by authors of color–Stamped, The Hate U Give, Booked, All-American Boys, and I could go on. If you’re reading this? Don’t stop. If the demand for these books stays high, publishers will keep buying them, and they may start paying the creators what they are worth.
(Oh, and for the record: $10,000 for A Pandemic Is Worldwide, $14,000 for Deadly Wish, $7000 for Brown Is Warm, Black Is Bright. #publishing paidme)
Read MoreKeith Mallett to Illustrate Brown Is Warm
Illustrator switch! Erin Robinson was on board to illustrator my upcoming picture book Brown Is Warm, Black Is Bright. Sadly, she had to drop the project.
Happily, a new illustrator has just signed on–Keith Mallett, whose glowing colors and expressive faces will bring a lot of joy and vivacity to the book. I can’t wait to see what it will look like!
Read MoreSarah L. Thomson
A children’s book author publishing award-winning nonfiction, poetry, picture books and novels including…
“Readers will treasure the blossoming friendship between opposites in this whimsically illustrated tale. Short chapters and plenty of action make for an accessible and appealing reading experience. . . . Touching and inspiring.”
—Kirkus Reviews