Chapter 7—The Literary Assistants

With more than a thousand books in her library at the time of her death, how could Mrs. White have read and borrowed from them all? Didn’t her literary assistants do some of the borrowing for her? ^{1The White Lie, p. 281.}

The fact is that at this point in research on this project, there are fewer than one hundred books from which there is solid evidence of literary borrowing. In many cases that evidence involves only a single brief passage. The White Lie provides or alleges parallels to only about 35 specific sources. Nevertheless, there is simply no reason to assume Ellen White was incapable of reading all the books from which she is alleged to have borrowed. True, she was often very busy, but she made good use of her time.TAWL 11.6

What is more to the point, there is no evidence that the literary assistants were responsible for bringing material from other authors into Ellen White’s writings. “There is one thing that even the most competent editor cannot do,” Marian Davis wrote, “and that is to prepare a manuscript before it is written.” ^{2Marian Davis to W. C. White, Aug. 9, 1897.}TAWL 11.7

It is true that a few sentences from James Wylie appear in the Huss chapter of The Great Controversy which are not found in the handwritten rough draft.TAWL 11.8

Ellen White drew extensively from Wylie in that handwritten draft, but we do not know what further stages of writing she might have done on the chapter. Furthermore, the edited manuscript was sent immediately to Ellen White for her approval.TAWL 11.9