Many well-known childrens' books were revised to eliminate prejudice.

I think such revisions are a good way to fix the problem. They make the book available without the prejudice.

The bad aspect is that the new edition will have a newer copyright; children reading the new edition shortly after its publication will grow old and die before they can lawfully share copies of it. Beware the >oppressive e-books with DRM! They will have to resort to unauthorized copying.

What publishers should not do is to withdraw the book from publication at the slightest hint of prejudice. That represents the choice to destroy the work rather than fix it.

For instance, Dr Seuss's 1937 book, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, was withdrawn on account of one small drawing, which depicts a Chinese man dressed in what might be a style of the 1800s and wearing his hair in a queue, as the Manchu conquerors imposed.

I asked a Chinese friend and a Taiwanese friend what they thought of that drawing. Neither one felt offended by it. Nor would I feel offended by a drawing of an American with clothing and hairdo in a style from the 1800s.