I kind of liked Agatha Christie when I lived in the US. I mean, I do have a kind of a political objection to the notion of a cosy murder. The way those books talk about violence is deeply weird. But they're still kind of charming and I do like the BBC adaptations for telly.
Anyway, it turns out that her American publisher asked to please remove the unrelenting antisemitism from her writings. She agreed and the US editions are enjoyable. The British editions are unreadable and awful.
Some folks think we should preserve bigotry in texts as a form of evidence. I don't want to read texts that contain bigoty. I don't want them to be published. This is what archives are for, not fresh, newly printed books. Yeah, it changes the author's words and some of their intent. That's what editors and publishers and translators are meant to do. That's why a publishing industry still exists when otherwise high-quality self-publishing is extremely accessible.
