Roald Dahl’s First Charlie Was Black, Widow Says
The widow and the biographer of the British children’s writer Roald Dahl told the BBC that Charlie Bucket, the young boy whose life is changed by a golden ticket in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” was originally supposed to be black.
“His first Charlie that he wrote about was a little black boy,” said the widow, Felicity Dahl. Her interview was timed to the author’s September 13 birthday, which fans of his work celebrate as Roald Dahl Day. He would have been 101.
But as readers and moviegoers the world over know, Charlie Bucket is white. Donald Sturrock, the biographer, said that was because of Mr. Dahl’s agent, whom he did not name. “It was his agent who thought it was a bad idea when the book was first published to have a black hero,” Mr. Sturrock said. “She said people would ask why.”
Mrs. Dahl said “it was a great pity” that Charlie’s race had been changed. When Mr. Sturrock asked if they would ever issue a “reworking” of the story, she replied, “It would be wonderful, wouldn’t it?”
Mr. Dahl’s work is widely beloved and has spawned several film adaptations since the 1964 book was made into a movie, “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,” in 1971, with 12-year- old, blond-haired Peter Ostrum as Charlie.
Mr. Dahl’s other well-known children’s books include “James and the Giant Peach,” “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “Witches,” “Matilda” and “The BFG,” all of which have been turned into popular movies. A Broadway musical based on “Matilda” ran for several years.
But his work has been dogged by accusations of anti- Semitism, and critics denounced his original portrayal of the Oompa Loompas as African pygmies. In later editions, he made them dwarflike creatures from Loompaland.
Last year, The Forward, a Jewish newspaper, published an article, “The 5 Most Anti- Semitic Things Roald Dahl Has Ever Said,” which included, “There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity,” and, “I am certainly anti-Israel, and I have become anti- Semitic.”
“Praise for Mr. Dahl as a writer must not obscure the fact that he was also a bigot,” Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League at the time, wrote to The New York Times in 1990, after Mr. Dahl died at 74.
During the press tour for the 2016 Steven Spielberg film based on “The BFG” about a big, friendly giant, Mr. Spielberg said the statements attributed to Mr. Dahl were “a paradox” because many of his books “do the opposite, embracing the differences between races and cultures and sizes and language.”
Mr. Dahl’s friends told Mr. Spielberg that Mr. Dahl “liked to say things he didn’t mean just to get a reaction.”
“It’s hard even for me to even believe that somebody who could write something like that could say the terrible things that had been reported,” Mr. Spielberg said.