David Harsanyi has a splendid piece for the magazine arguing in favor of acquiring older, physical copies of stories as more beloved classics find themselves beneath the lenses of progressive editors.
Harsanyi writes:
Editing of classic works goes far beyond run-of-the-mill political correctness. It is cultural presentism, an effort to rewrite the past. Literature has never been purely about reading a good yarn or character study. It’s about experiencing a world and time through the prism of the author’s experiences and imagination.
All of this is a long way of saying: Buy old books. It’s a moral imperative. Old, physical copies of books. If you, like me, love bibliosmia — the smell of old hardcovers; or, rather, the odor created by chemical compounds in paper breaking down after being exposed to light, water, and heat for extended periods of time — then you’ve been trolling the garage sales and thrift and antique shops as well. For years I struggled to justify my addiction. Now I’ve been vindicated, and so have you. It’s nothing less than cultural preservation. Just in case.
Please consider reading David’s work in its entirety here.
In addition to stories, I strongly suggest swinging by the reference section and picking up older thesauruses and dictionaries. A side-by-side comparison with even the most comprehensive contemporary offerings reveals modern English’s paucity of literary flavor compared to 50 years ago.