An obvious nod

[Ya Sam]

Transatlantic Publishing: Here's a related question about imports from the 
UK: How common is it to change the actual text from UK spelling and 
vocabulary for the US publication of a novel? I heard that this was done 
with the Harry Potter books. True? What about authors like McEwan? What a 
horrible, horrible idea. I remember with great affection reading the 
Chronicles of Narnia as a child and enjoying figuring out, for example, what 
a "torch" (flashlight) was.

Michael Dirda: It happens sometimes. The Dr. Doolittle books were slightly 
fiddled with in later years, partly for the American market but largely for 
the implied racism of some of the episodes in Africa.
The worst example I know is Lawrence Norfolk's Lempriere's Dictionary, where 
a fifth of the book was lopped off the first American edition. It was felt 
that these fantasy elements would get the book shelved as a genre novel 
rather than an innovative mainstream fiction. Norfolk, being young and 
produly pressured, went along with this, but years later did get his 
preferred and fuller text restored for American paperbacks.
I can't think of a good example just now but I am sometimes surprised when I 
read British novels and discover American lingo--e.g. truck instead of 
lorry. It happens. But really it seems shortsighted, as part of the charm of 
"foreign" fiction is in going to a slightly strange place that isn't 
America.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27263-2005Jan21.html

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