How The Desire of Ages Was Written

Chapter 3—The Role of Marian Davis

Marian Davis was one of those special people to whom Ellen White looked for more than routine copying and editing. Marian was authorized to drop out needless words (See Exhibit 67) or at times to change words when necessary (See Exhibit 37). She helped Mrs. White plan a good number of her books, from the first chapter to the last (p. 39, par. 1). HDAW 3.2

Marian was Ellen White’s “bookmaker” (p. 41, par. 1). She gleaned material, even isolated sentences (p. 28, par. 6; p. 39, par. 1; p. 30, par. 4), on the life of Christ from Ellen White’s diaries, letters, and articles (p. 44, par. 3; p. 29, par. 0), which she pasted in scrapbooks. She drew material for The Desire of Ages from these scrapbooks, the bound E. G. White books, and some longer manuscripts (p. 24, par. 4). HDAW 3.3

In organizing the material into chapters, Marian noted areas on which she had nothing from Ellen White’s pen. Apparently the two women had such a close working relationship that Marian felt free to make suggestions to Mrs. White as to what she thought might be lacking from the book. Some of these suggestions Ellen White accepted, but others she rejected. For example, while Marian’s advice regarding “the rock, when the water flowed,” was accepted for an earlier book (p. 21, par. 1), her recommendation concerning “the building a tower” and “the war of kings” was rejected. Ellen White declared she would not write on these topics unless “the Lord’s Spirit seems to lead me” (p. 25, par. 3). ³ HDAW 3.4

Marian also made suggestions to Ellen White with reference to Christ’s struggle when tempted to use His divine power (p. 26, par. 5), and the parables of the pearl and the net (p. 23, par. 6). While Ellen White no doubt appreciated these suggestions, it was clearly she herself, and not Marian, who decided what topics she would write on. HDAW 4.1

Not only did Ellen White do the initial writing, she also took full responsibility for every word which eventually appeared in her books. She explained to her sister Mary, “I read over all that is copied, to see that everything is as it should be. I read all the book manuscript before it is sent to the printer” (p. 44, par. 2). This clearly was her routine method of working. Marian Davis once remarked to Ellen White, “Of course, nothing will go that you do not approve” (p. 30, par. 2). HDAW 4.2