Wilson Opposes Deletions in Reading Test : Education: He writes to author whose work was dropped and asks her to reconsider accepting a state award. Governor also criticizes officials who made the decision.

SACRAMENTO — Seeking to put an end to a mounting controversy over censorship, Gov. Pete Wilson on Wednesday told award-winning writer Alice Walker he does not endorse a decision by the State Board of Education to drop stories by Walker and another Pulitzer Prize winner from state reading tests.

In a letter, Wilson also appealed to Walker, author of “The Color Purple,” to reconsider her decision to decline a gubernatorial arts award because her stories were pulled from the new statewide tests for high school sophomores.

In a separate, strongly worded letter to State Board of Education President Marion McDowell and Acting Supt. of Public Instruction William D. Dawson, Wilson said: “We must oppose censorship of any kind. It contradicts my personal beliefs and betrays the principles upon which our free society is built.

“Any hint of biased selection of materials or censorship in the development of a test is intolerable,” Wilson said.

Even though Wilson distanced himself from his own appointees on the Board of Education, he did not specifically criticize their actions, taken last year. In an interview, he blamed the confusion over his position on a statement by a staff member made “in my absence and without my knowledge.”

By sending the letters, Wilson also appears to be attempting to quiet complaints from state legislators, especially Democrats, who will hold a hearing on the issue next week.

The governor acted just a day after the first results of the revolutionary new testing system were released and showed the state’s students in an unflattering light.

Walker, who lives in Northern California, was on vacation Wednesday and unavailable for comment, according to her agent’s office. But earlier, she had labeled state educators “abominably weak” for pulling her short story “Roselily” from the exam for sophomores.

The censorship fight revolves around two separate incidents, both involving stories by Walker, whose work focuses on themes of racism, sexism, oppression and callousness.

In October, the Riverside Press-Enterprise published an excerpt from “Roselily,” which was on last year’s test, along with the test questions. The excerpt is about the thoughts of an unmarried mother as she stands at the altar for her wedding. It appeared in Walker’s collection of short stories “In Love & Trouble: Stories of Black Women.”

Susie Lange, a spokeswoman for schools chief Dawson, said the story was removed from the test because publication in the newspaper violated the confidentiality of the exam and because of ensuing protests from conservatives.

Indeed, shortly after the newspaper story appeared, conservative Christians complained to the state Board of Education. Last month, Steve Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, whose group complained, said the story “could easily be construed as anti-religious and anti-clergy.”

But just as the controversy over “Roselily” quieted down, the Board of Education yanked another Walker story, “Am I Blue?” and a passage from “American Childhood,” by Annie Dillard, from the 1994 test.

Under authority given by the Legislature, the board was directed to review the test. After a review by a subcommittee including McDowell and Kathryn M. Dronenburg, along with parents and teachers, the board in December recommended that the Walker and Dillard passages be eliminated or modified. To keep the test confidential, the full board was never told the names of the stories or the authors, according to Lange.

Minutes of the board’s December meeting quote McDowell as saying: “It was the board’s feeling that these two passages might unnecessarily spark controversy. One because it might be viewed as violent, the other because it might be viewed as advocating a particular nutritional lifestyle.”

McDowell, a school administrator in Redwood City, could not be reached for comment. But earlier this month she told the San Francisco Chronicle that “Am I Blue?”--an essay on the life of a horse named Blue--was “anti meat-eating.”

Dronenburg, who was unavailable Wednesday, was quoted as saying said she rejected the Dillard story because of “violence” in a description of a snowball fight. “American Childhood” is the story of Dillard’s girlhood and adolescence.

The board’s decisions have been questioned by writers’ groups, legislators and People for the American Way, a liberal group that battles censorship.

In his letter to McDowell and Dawson, Wilson noted that the board is holding a hearing on the new statewide test Friday and cautioned that “they need to provide public assurance that your procedures . . . are free from the fact or appearance of censorship.”

It is unclear whether Walker will be satisfied by Wilson’s letter.

On Monday, Walker sent Gov. Wilson a one-sentence note saying she could not accept the “Governor’s Award for Literature” to be bestowed on her later this month. The awards ceremony is a benefit for the California State Summer School for the Arts. Walker was designated as an award recipient along with filmmaker Steven Spielberg, artist David Hockney, actor Hal Holbrook and others.

In Wednesday’s letter to Walker, Wilson noted that the awards are designed to raise money for scholarships so needy young people can attend the school and urged her to reconsider her decision to turn down the honor.

“It would be particularly ironic if aspiring young artists were deprived of the scholarships funded through this dinner over this unfortunate misunderstanding,” Wilson told Walker.

Times staff writer Daniel M. Weintraub contributed to this story.