Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl - 1973 version

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl. 1973 hardcover. 162 pages, very nice condition.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a classic 1964 children's novel which features the adventures of young Charlie Bucket inside the chocolate factory of eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka. Illustrated by Joseph Schindelman, which rules.

In the 1964 version, the Oompa-Loompas were originally described as African pygmies, wearing deerskins. In 1973, after the announcement of a film adaptation, the NAACP issued a statement which expressed concern that the transportation of Oompa-Loompas to Wonka's factory resembled slavery. Dahl then made the decision to change the text of the book, making the Oompa-Loompas “rosey-white,” with none of the other language being altered, and the accompanying illustrations from the original remaining unaltered. This is the version most people remember, but it is now out of print, as of 2023.

In 2023, however, all holy Hell broke loose and publisher Puffin made more than eighty additional changes to the original text of the book, such as: removing every occurrence of the word fat (including referring to Augustus Gloop as "enormous" rather than "enormously fat" and greatly changing the words of his song); removing most references to the Oompa-Loompa's diminutive size and physical appearance and omitting descriptions of them living in trees and wearing deerskins and leaves; removing or changing the words mad, crazy, and queer; omitting many references to Mike Teavee's toy guns; and removing references to corporal punishment (such as changing "She needs a really good spanking" to "She needs a really good talking to" and "She wants a good kick in the pants" to "She needs to learn some manners"). No one wants the new version of this wonderful book. Dahl died in 1990 and I hope he has cursed the publisher from the grave.