NewSouth Books is an independent publishing house founded in 2000 in
Montgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...
, by editor H. Randall Williams and publisher Suzanne La Rosa. Williams was the founder of
Black Belt Press, working there from 1986 to 1999, and La Rosa worked in magazine and book publishing in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, before moving south. The publishing house is unrelated to
NewSouth Books or
NewSouth Publishing, imprints of
UNSW Press
The University of New South Wales Press Ltd. is an Australian academic book publishing company launched in 1962 and based in Randwick, a suburb of Sydney. The ACNC not-for-profit entity has three divisions: NewSouth Publishing (the publishing arm ...
based in
Sydney,
New South Wales
)
, nickname =
, image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg
, map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates:
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = Australia
, established_title = Before federation
, es ...
,
Australia.
NewSouth Books publishes
nonfiction,
fiction and
poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
, as well as children's books. They have published works of fiction by
Hans Koning
Hans Koning (born Hans Königsberger, since 1949 officially Hans Konigsberger; July 12, 1921 – April 13, 2007) was a Dutch author of over 40 fiction and non-fiction books, was also a prolific journalist, contributing for almost 60 years to many ...
and Gerald Duff; books of poetry by
Andrew Glaze,
John Beecher, Jorge Carrera Andrade, and Tom House; biographies of famous Alabamians like Sen.
Howell Heflin, Gov.
John Malcolm Patterson
John Malcolm Patterson (September 27, 1921 – June 4, 2021) was an American politician. Despite having never stood for public office before he served one term as Attorney General of Alabama from 1955 to 1959, and, at age 37, served one term as ...
, and U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice
Hugo Black; and memoirs by Civil Rights figures Attorney
Fred Gray and Rev.
Robert Graetz.
The company received media attention in January 2011 for publishing an
expurgated edition of
Mark Twain's ''
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' or as it is known in more recent editions, ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'', is a novel by American author Mark Twain, which was first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United S ...
'' that censored the words "nigger" and "Injun." An argument to censor the edition was voiced by
Alan Gribben, a professor at
Auburn University, who said the version would be more friendly to teachers and students at schools which currently ban the book. NewSouth's version was met with criticism, with some saying the censorship failed to adequately convey the original connotations of Twain's text.
References
External links
{{Portal, United States, Companies, Books
NewSouth Books of Alabama
Book publishing companies of the United States
Companies based in Montgomery, Alabama
Publishing companies established in 2000
2000 establishments in Alabama