Posted on 11/27/2005 9:21:12 PM PST by tbird5
A recent change in the photo of a well-known children’s book illustrator to remove a cigarette from his hand has drawn criticism from a Kansas City bookstore.
Pete Cowdin, owner of Reading Reptile, said he noticed the change about six weeks ago while selling a copy of "Goodnight Moon," a popular classic written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Clement Hurd that was first published in 1947.
The photograph of Hurd published in the book for years showed him with a cigarette in his right hand, but in new copies brought out recently by HarperCollins Publishers, the cigarette has been digitally removed.
Cowdin, surprised by the change, reacted by setting up a Web site, www.goodnightreality.com, to protest what he says is censorship.
"This is one of the best-selling kids’ books of all time," he said. "There are certain responsibilities and obligations on the part of the publisher as a steward - not just a marketer - to what I consider an archival document. To go in and do something like that is the pinnacle of arrogance."
The company defends the altered photo. Kate Morgan Jackson, editor-in-chief for HarperCollins Children’s Books, said the company contends the issue is about smoking.
"One of our responsibilities is to make sure we are publishing" the book "the right way throughout the ages and making it healthy for every generation," she said.
Cowdin includes both versions of the photo on his Web site and ask readers to vote "smoke" or "no smoke."
While saying "everybody agrees" that smoking is bad, Cowdin said changing the photo suggests that Hurd is "attendant to some moral lapse," although the photo was taken decades ago when attitudes about smoking were different.
How Sovietesque.
He probably would have been ok with it, if asked.
So I guess the lesson is that people died of nothing. They got lung cancer from posing like they were holding something, but not really inhaling anything whatsoever.
Nice lesson for kids - consequences DON'T result from any particular actions...
If they wanted to do away with the cigarette, all they had to do was zoom in on his face. No one would have been offended.
LOL! Somebody on a Sheehan thread on another website actually suggested that the photos of Mother Sheehan with nobody there were photoshopped. That poster was rapidly shot down!
But what if he had been smoking a medicinal joint? Do you think the same editors would have Photoshopped it out of the picture?
looks like the album signing spinal tapp had. She should have printed in in doubly.
He probablyy would have submitted a second photo, ya think?
He's now saying, "Hey! I look gay with my hand hanging out in nowhere!"
"Contacted in the afterlife, Hurd had this comment for the publishers."
Hmm. Maybe he was.
Goodnight reality indeed. I say if Harper Collins thinks it's inappropriate to show a picture of someone smoking in their book, they ought to either show no picture, or one without a cigarette.
He's would be holding it wrong.
He would be holding it wrong.
The lesson for the kids is that revising history to make it conform to what somebody wishes it had been is ok. Next they'll be taking the rifles out of the hands of the Minutemen and replacing them with Gay Pride banners.
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