Oprah Winfrey pulls disputed children's book, 'The Education of Little Tree,' off approved list

``The archived listing was posted in error and has been removed,'' Winfrey spokeswoman Angela DePaul told the Associated Press, adding that she did not know long Little Tree had been on the site.

The AP had inquired last week about The Education of Little Tree, which was featured on www.oprah.com with The Color Purple, The Grapes of Wrath and other ``guaranteed page-turners from Oprah's personal collection.''

First published in 1976, The Education of Little Tree was supposedly the real-life story of an orphaned boy raised by his Cherokee grandparents; the book became a million seller and sentimental favorite. In 1991, the American Booksellers Association gave Little Tree its first ever Abby award, established to honor the ``hidden treasures'' that ABA bookstore members most enjoyed recommending.

But suspicions about Carter, who died in 1979, began in his lifetime, and were raised significantly in the early 1990s, not long after the book won the Abby. Carter was identified as Asa Earl Carter, a member of the Ku Klux Klan and speechwriter for former Alabama governor George Wallace.

`` Little Tree is a lovely little book, and I sometimes wonder if it is an act of romantic atonement by a guilt-ridden white supremacist, but ultimately I think it is the racial hypocrisy of a white supremacist,'' says author Sherman Alexie, whose books include Ten Little Indians and the young adult novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, a nominee this year for a National Book Award.

``I am surprised, of course, that Winfrey would recommend it,'' says Lorene Roy, president of the American Library Association. ``Besides the questions about the author's identity, the book is known for a simplistic plot that used a lot of stereotypical imagery.'' Winfrey had long been aware of the book's background and has acknowledged she once was a fan. She discussed Little Tree on her TV show in 1994, recalling a ``loving story about a boy growing up with his grandfather and learning about nature and speaking to the trees. And it's very spiritual.''

When Winfrey learned the truth about Carter, she felt she ``had to take the book off my shelf.''

``I no longer - even though I had been moved by the story - felt the same about this book,'' she said in 1994.

``There's a part of me that said, `Well, if a person has two sides to them and can write this wonderful story and also write the segregation forever speech, maybe that's OK.' But I couldn't live with that.'' - AP