New York Times corrects "12 Years a Slave" story -- 161 years later
Better late than never?
The New York Times issued a correction Tuesday for an article that ran on Jan. 20, 1853 -- more than 160 years ago -- about the man whose memoir inspired the film "12 Years a Slave," which was named best picture at Sunday's Oscars.
The Times explained that the story about Solomon Northup, a free black man who was kidnapped into slavery, spelled his name incorrectly, in two different ways. His surname appeared as "Northrup" in the article's headline and as "Northrop" in the article itself.
The paper said the errors came to light Monday "after a Twitter user pointed out the article in The Times archives."
That Twitter user, it seems, was Rebecca Skloot, the author of "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks."
Interesting: That original 1853 article spelled Solomon's name differently in headline vs main article #12YearsASlave http://t.co/olPwzyP0n8
— Rebecca Skloot (@RebeccaSkloot) March 3, 2014
Yesterday I posted that the 1853 Solomon Northup article misspelled his name.NYT has issued correction #12YearsaSlave pic.twitter.com/sDbYIq80nB
— Rebecca Skloot (@RebeccaSkloot) March 4, 2014
After the correction ran, she tweeted, "The irony, of course, is that I'm a terrible speller and proofreader."