Each fall, the English 4 classes at both Antioch and Lakes Community High Schools read the novel “In the Lake of the Woods” by Tim O’Brien. The book’s plot line explores a Vietnam veteran’s suffering with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The main character, John Wade, ran for US Senate, but did not get elected, leading to a spiral into the mystery of his missing wife.

Recently, the English 4 teachers discovered that the copies that were ordered for this year’s seniors were very different from the traditional copies that many of the teachers have. Though the copyright date and information is identical in both copies, the version that was ordered more recently is different in many other ways, including multiple parts where whole paragraphs were edited out and language that could be seen as offensive was taken out.

It is still unclear as to whether or not the edits were requested by the author or if an editor took the liberty of making the changes without any permission.

“It’s very strange to not have a disclaimer, a forward or a change of edition number, which is usually what happens. But because editors these days would have access to the master file, anybody with access could change things theoretically and not tell anybody and that’s how you get those mistakes,” said Audrey Nagel, ACHS English teacher.

Nagel used to work at a small publishing company and has never seen a situation like this.

“If the author didn’t make the changes, then I think that changing an author’s words is pretty awful. It’s like putting pants on the statue of David. You don’t do that,” said Nagel.