What was the work of the literary assistants? Did they merely correct spelling and punctuation?

W. C. White answered the question in a letter from a woman who wondered if the thoughts and expressions she read in Ellen White’s published works were really from Mrs. White:TAWL 12.2

The secretaries and copyists who prepare Mother’s writings for the printer remove repetitions so that the matter may be brought into the allotted space. They correct bad grammar and they fit the matter for publication. They sometimes carry her best expressions of thought from one paragraph to another but do not introduce their own thoughts into the matter. The thoughts and expressions which you mention are Mother’s own thoughts and expressions. ^{6W. C. White to Julia Malcolm, Dec. 10, 1894.}

Mrs. White once referred to Marian Davis as “my bookmaker,” and then explained:TAWL 12.3

She does her work in this way: She takes my articles which are published in the papers, and pastes them in blank books. She also has a copy of all the letters I write. In preparing a chapter for a book, Marian remembers that I have written something on that special point, which may make the matter more forcible. She begins to search for this, and if when she finds it, she sees that it will make the chapter more clear, she adds it.

The books are not Marian’s productions, but my own, gathered from all my writings. ^{7Ellen G. White, Selected Messages 3:91.}

Contrary to The White Lie, Mrs. White was in control of her writings and of what was published in her name. She says:TAWL 12.4

I read over all that is copied [from her handwritten drafts], to see that everything is as it should be. I read all the book manuscript before it is sent to the printer. ^{8Selected Messages 3:90.}

The many personal letters exchanged between the literary assistants, W. C. White, and Ellen White leave no doubt that this was indeed the way Mrs. White’s works were prepared for publication. ^{9See “How The Desire of Ages was Written,” for an extensive collection of such correspondence. Available from the Ellen G. White Estate.}TAWL 12.5