[Prestidigitweeze]

As a long-term editor of literary magazines, small press novels and major press anthologies, I can tell you that most authors I've dealt with will fight to the death for their original wording. Besides which, it's a mistake to invest dead authors with imagined behavior unless you're writing about them as characters.

As an author who's published a fair bit, I can tell you I'd be incredibly annoyed at those kinds of substitutions after going through thirty-seven drafts to get the rhythm and diction just right.

Glad we agree that people who call for Muckraker's public shaming and boycott the vast publishing empire in his garage might be overreacting.

The honest thing to do is to add a disclaimer showing you've changed the language if in fact that's what you've done. If you're publishing Lewis Carroll but have changed a few words, then be good enough to tell us that.