On Wed, 9 Apr 1997, sue hagedorn wrote:
> --surprise,
> >surprise--they actually put obviously black characters on the covers
> >(which wasn't the case when the books first came out).
>
> Yes--It's very interesting, too, that when I had a class of freshmen read
> Dawn, they were at first oblivious to any mention of race (that book
> illustrator too obviously had not read the book itself)--when it was
> pointed out to them, they changed some of their perceptions about the story
> line. That helped me make a point (my "theme" was "What Does it Mean to be
> Human?")--but I was a bit surprised at the reaction. (I guess I've been
> reading SF too long--since my first Ace double back in the '50s!)
>
> Sue
>
The white character on the cover of the original edition of Butler's Dawn
was not a result of the artist's failing to read the book, or failing to
notice that the protagonist was actually Afican American. It was a
conscious editorial decision designed to increase sales, based on the
belief that having an African American on the cover of an SF novel would
cost more sales by white book buyers than it would pick up sales by
African American book buyers. Sad, but true.
Mike Levy
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