The imprint

A Note to the Reader

OutWrite Books publishes LGBTQ+ books from the years when the people in them could be arrested, committed, or fired for who they were. Many of these books use words about people of color, immigrants, people of different religions, women, and LGBTQ+ people themselves that wound readers now. Some of those words wounded readers then.

We print every word as the author wrote it, to preserve the historical record. Printing a word is not endorsing it, and the views in these books belong to their authors and characters, not to OutWrite Books. We keep these words so that readers can see where we have been, how far we have traveled, and how far we still have to go. An edition that edits the past is not preserving it.

New OutWrite Modern Editions open with this note, followed by a few paragraphs on what that book’s own language includes, and an Introduction that discusses it.

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