From Slurs to Soldiers: The Global Rebranding of And Then There Were None

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"But no artist, I now realize, can be satisfied with art alone. There is a natural craving to have it recognized."

The best-selling mystery, and the seventh best-selling title of all time, And Then There Were None, written by Agatha Christie, remains one of the world's most-read books, with millions of copies sold every year. This novel, which Christie herself described as her most difficult to write, followed a tumultuous publication history surrounding its title.

Today’s title, And Then There Were None, has undergone quite a lot of changes since its initial publication in the United Kingdom in 1939. The first title of the book, published by the Collins Crime Club imprint, was inspired by a 19th-century nursery rhyme and minstrel song. Though the title was scandalous and insulting, it remained the same in UK versions until 1985.

UK edition
In contrast, when the book was published in the United States in January 1940 by Dodd, Mead and Company, the title was immediately changed for the American audience to And Then There Were None. Simultaneously, the book was introduced in France by Librairie des Champs-Élysées as Dix Petits Nègres, translated by Louis Postif. It was not until 2020,despite of the outrage, that France changed the title to Ils étaient dix at the request of James Prichard , Agatha christie's great grandson and manager of her rights. Additionally, between the years 1964 and 1980, US pocketbook editions used the name Ten Little Indians. While many international translations moved away from the original slur by the 1970s, some editions in various languages unfortunately retained it much longer.



This is a prime example of how publishers change a name in order to adapt the product to their readers' and customers' tastes. In a market like America’s, the use of the racial slur was seen as something completely different and insulting on another level compared to the UK. This is not to say that the term wasn't insulting in the UK; quite the contrary. In fact, Black civil rights groups in London in the 1930s, like the League of Coloured Peoples, certainly found the term insulting and dehumanizing.

However, since the term was said to be inspired by a folklore rhyme, many white people viewed it as "innocent" or didn't find it as insulting as others. Nevertheless, since Dodd, Mead and Company was market-aware, they thought that perhaps the title didn't suit the audience, was somewhat insulting and sacndalous, and would certainly have impacted the sales of the book negatively.

The most surprising part of this history is that the UK edition kept the original title for 46 years after its release. They argued that since the island in the book was named after the slur, the word was descriptive and essential to the story. This leads us to a more content-based change in the novel. As mentioned, some editions used the word "Indian" instead of the slur; so while some editions called it "Indian Island," or the modern "Soldier Island" was originally a racial reference in the first UK version because, according to the descriptions, the island looked like the face of a Black person.

The transition to Soldier Island itself was a slow evolution. When UK publishing finally decided in the mid-1980s that the term was no longer acceptable, they followed the lead of the American publisher and used the term "Indian." It was then during the late 1990s and early 2000s that the Agatha Christie Estate and her publishers (like HarperCollins) decided to move toward "Soldier Island" and "Ten Little Soldier Boys." "Soldier" fit the rhyme perfectly and maintained the island's imposing image. Since 1985, all English versions of the book have been published as And Then There Were None, with the poem being firmly about soldiers. By 2004, "Soldier Island" became the definitive standard for all new English-language publications, and modern printings have now unanimously adopted the use of "Soldier Island" and "Ten Little Soldiers."

While the term 'sensitivity reading' is often viewed as a modern phenomenon, the American publication of Christie’s novel in 1940 proves that cultural awareness has long been a driver of editorial strategy. By rebranding the book for the US market, Dodd, Mead and Company demonstrated that even eighty years ago, publishers understood that a book’s success depends on its alignment with the social ethics of its audience. This early act of content curation shows that the 'edit' is not just a linguistic tool, but a bridge between a text and its shifting cultural landscape.

As a matter of fact, in 2015, the novel was voted the best of Agatha Christie's works to mark her 125th anniversary. It is a testament to the fact that when the structural editing is perfect, the story can endure any changes.





References

https://www.agathachristie.com/en/stories/and-then-there-were-none

https://www.agathachristie.com/en/news/2015/worlds-favourite-christie

https://www.20minutes.fr/arts-stars/culture/2847035-20200826-dix-petits-negres-pourquoi-roman-agatha-christie-change-titre-france

https://findingaids.lib.udel.edu/
https://agathachristie.fandom.com/wiki/And_Then_There_Were_None







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