The Making of The Desire of Ages

The following covers various issues, all of which help to better understand how The Desire of Ages was written.

Topics to explore

• Was Ellen White a Plagiarist? Covers the issues relating to the claim that EGW was a plagiarist as well as Walter Rea's analysis of Desire of Ages found in an appendix of his book, The White Lie (see An Analysis of the Literary Dependency of Desire of Ages).
• History and Background of The Desire of Ages - II Introduction - Part B.
• The Desire of Ages project: the conclusions. Ministry Magazine effort to answer the question: To what degree was Ellen White dependent upon literary sources in writing The Desire of Ages?

Marian Davis (1847 - 1904). [Excerpts follow.] Marian Davis served as a copyist, bookmaker and literary assistant to Ellen G. White for 25 years, from 1879 until her death from tuberculosis in 1904. She accompanied Mrs. White in her travels in America, in Europe, and Australia.

During her years in Australia, Marian was the one who worked most closely with Ellen White on The Desire of Ages. Ellen White did not simply sit down and write the manuscript for The Desire of Ages as one would normally write a book. Rather, Marian assisted by selecting and compiling material on the life of Christ that Ellen White had previously written in letters, manuscripts, articles, and books. Mrs. White filled in gaps and expanded the narrative with further details as needed.

It is apparent that W. W. Prescott and Camden Lacey had some significant influence upon Marian Davis while she was preparing The Desire of Ages. Both of these men were trinitarians at this time, and it is obvious that the counsel Marian Davis received from them was pro-trinitarian. And she came from a Seventh-Day Baptist upbringing, which is trinitarian as well. Up to this time Marian Davis was very careful to present the Testimonies as they had been given by the Lord. Yet here it seems that she was influenced by Lacey and Prescott to make minor changes so that it appeared as if Ellen White was teaching the trinitarian doctrine. You could say they did this on purpose. But you could also say they were simply sharing what and how “they” believed. Either way, it’s an alteration of what would have been original content.

Life of Christ Research Project (1980-1988). The Desire of Ages was the major focus of this research. It was financed by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and in part by Pacific Union College.

• A Quick View of the LOCR Project. About 31 percent of the DA text measured some degree of literary dependency and about 61 percent registered independence. The rest represents the use of Scripture.
• All Documents. Website which contains the Table of Contents and links to all the documents in PDF.
• Preface.
• I Introduction - Part A.
• II Introduction - Part B - History and Background of The Desire of Ages.

Further reading

Ellen G. White as a writer.

• The Use of Literary Assistants. From Andrews University GSEM 534 - Lecture Outline.

EGW saw and approved the final drafts. Not always true. This is borne out by W. W. Prescott, one of EGW's editors. As documented in "The Spirit of Prophecy and Editorial Work" by Allen Stump.

• Prescott knew that many in the church were not aware of the borrowing [[Sister White's literary borrowing]] and had misunderstandings in other areas as well. One of those areas was the editing done to Sister White’s writings before going to print. While it is well known that Sister White had several good literary assistants who edited her work, most are under the assumption that Sister White always checked their work and approved the final drafts. Prescott himself knew better for he had been one of the editors who worked with Sister White’s manuscripts from time to time. For example, in 1893 and 1897 Prescott had “prepared two books on education for the press from manuscripts he had received, and Mrs. White saw none of the final drafts before they went to press. She was in Australia at the time. He alone did the unsupervised editing and preparing of the MS for the press. (3)
• Footnote 3: Valentine op. cit. Those books were Christian Education published in 1893, (later entitled Education) and Special Testimonies on Education published in 1897 (later used as the basis for Counsels to Parents, Teachers and Students). See also pages 167 and 168 of Valentine’s manuscript.

More on W. W. Prescott.

• See "The Church 'drifting toward a crisis': Prescott's 1915 Letter to William White." by Gilbert M. Valentine. Original article here.
• WhiteEstate.org compilation of the Prescott Letter.
• MR No. 834—Counsels Involving W. W. Prescott and His Work. [This release represents materials which present the background of a letter W. W. Prescott wrote on April 6, 1915, to W. C. White, and which is currently being quite widely circulated. In a few instances where portions of sentences are employed, the material requested is given in the setting of its proposed use. This is true also of some of the statements to or about W. W. Prescott, sensitive in nature, which should be used only in the context of historical setting.]
• W. W. Prescott (1855-1944). Initially praised by EGW, after her death he began question her writings. According to this article, Prescott would also change the meaning of the "daily" from Uriah Smith's interpretation to his own which is the present SDA view.
• As It Reads: W. W. Prescott. Prescott would later become trinitarian. In his own words, "I am a humble believer in God the Father, and God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and in the great salvation which the three persons of the Godhead have provided for all who will receive it." {1929 WWP, SOTW 13.2} Saviour of the World.