diff --git a/django/db/models/fields/__init__.py b/django/db/models/fields/__init__.py
index 34d998c219..7986a4284a 100644
--- a/django/db/models/fields/__init__.py
+++ b/django/db/models/fields/__init__.py
@@ -686,7 +686,8 @@ class DecimalField(Field):
 
 class EmailField(CharField):
     def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
-        kwargs['max_length'] = 75
+        if 'max_length' not in kwargs:
+            kwargs['max_length'] = 75
         CharField.__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)
 
     def get_internal_type(self):
diff --git a/docs/model-api.txt b/docs/model-api.txt
index 27207aab6f..d6327bc795 100644
--- a/docs/model-api.txt
+++ b/docs/model-api.txt
@@ -221,8 +221,10 @@ The admin represents this as an ``<input type="text">`` (a single-line input).
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
 A ``CharField`` that checks that the value is a valid e-mail address.
-This doesn't accept ``max_length``; its ``max_length`` is automatically set to
-75.
+
+In Django 0.96, this doesn't accept ``max_length``; its ``max_length`` is
+automatically set to 75. In the Django development version, ``max_length`` is
+set to 75 by default, but you can specify it to override default behavior.
 
 ``FileField``
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~