One early criticism of Huck Finn concerned Twain’s intentional use of bad grammar in the book. Some critics complain Huckeberry Finn contributes to racial stereotypes By 1960 it had sold 10 million copies more than forty different editions have been printed in the United States alone.Īlthough Twain’s Tom Sawyer initially overshadowed Huck Finn, most scholars have since come to consider the latter book Twain’s best work and one of the great American novels. Two decades later, the New York Public Library banned Huck Finn from the children’s reading room because Huck scratched when he itched and said “sweat.” When informed of the censorship, Twain remarked that the controversy would only increase sales. Book became bestseller through controversy Immediately after publication, the book was banned on the recommendation of public commissioners in Concord, Massachusetts, who described it as racist, coarse, trashy, inelegant, irreligious, obsolete, inaccurate, and mindless. Some Americans did not view Huck as a positive role model for young readers. Huck Finn, a rebellious teenager, fakes his own death to escape an alcoholic father and throughout the book challenges the mores of his society. This novel, written by Samuel Clemens (1835–1910) under the pen name Mark Twain, chronicles the adventures of two young white boys and an escaped black slave who sail the Mississippi River on a raft. Huckleberry Finn banned immediately after publication (AP Photo/David Duprey, used with permission from The Associated Press)Ī 1907 article in the Library Journal reported that Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) had been banned somewhere every year since its publication. Immediately after the book was published, it was banned in Concord, Massachusetts, and has been banned several times since then from libraries because of what some viewed as inappropriate content. 23, 2010, Mark Woodhouse, Mark Twain archivist, holds a first edition 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' book by Mark Twain at the Mark Twain Archive at Elmira College in Elmira, N.Y.

The adventures huck finn