Ellen G. White and Her Critics

All Set to Publish New Edition

On June 17, 1884, Haskell writes from South Lancaster, Massachusetts, a brief note to White. All that it contains regarding the book is this: “R & H [Review and Herald] just sent me a dummy for Life Sketches of Paul which they propose to print after the sample for 27 cts. for 5000 copies. All that is wanting is plates. Is this move all right?” EGWC 444.1

Amadon, writing long after the event, and in the midst of a swirl of stories about the book’s being “suppressed,” wrote that it was withdrawn “promptly.” But Haskell’s letter reveals that a year after the initial printing the Review and Herald in Battle Creek was awaiting only the approval of W. C. White before printing another and larger edition, this one for colporteurs, we judge, in view of the preceding letters! EGWC 444.2

And why should the publishers wait for approval from W. C. White? In those days Mrs. White’s office generally carried the initial cost of launching a new book by her, and owned the plates. The royalty rate was set accordingly. W. C. White cared for his mother’s business affairs. EGWC 444.3

We do not have a copy of his reply to Haskell. Not until 1885 did the White office begin to use typewriters, and thus to keep copies of correspondence. Evidently his reply was negative, for we find him writing thus to Haskell on March 11, 1885: EGWC 444.4

“I am sorry that we did not go ahead and publish sketches of ‘PAUL,’ when you first suggested it. There seem to be serious obstacles in the way, and now that times are so hard, and we are bending all our efforts to put an illustrated edition of ‘Vol. 4’ [The Great Controversy, 1884 edition] upon the market, it may be best to wait a little longer.” EGWC 444.5

Perhaps the initial cost of placing The Great Controversy on the market as a colporteur book had proved too heavy to warrant an investment in another book. Possibly, also, the colporteur army was too limited in those days to justify bringing forth these two books for them at the same time, in addition to other books that they were selling. Besides, there is evidence that the leading brethren thought that Mrs. White’s The Great Controversy, just off the press, was the book that then merited the special attention of the colporteurs. ^* Furthermore, times were hard. EGWC 444.6

Here, indeed, was the place for White to add one more to the list of “obstacles.” Did he not know that the book was supposed to be “suppressed”? But no shadow of such an idea creeps into any of the correspondence. EGWC 445.1

The next few years saw the 1884 Great Controversy enjoying an unexpectedly good and increasing sale by colporteurs. As the advertising promotion for Mrs. White’s work on Paul ended in the Review and Signs, promotion for The Great Controversy took its place. This ran for several years. The interesting feature of these advertisements is that many of them refer to the author of this new book as being also the author, among other works, of Sketches From the Life of Paul. ^† EGWC 445.2

Even more interesting is this fact: Beginning with the first edition, The Great Controversy carried several pages in the back advertising a number of works by Mrs. White and other writers, dropping some of her books and adding others, but continuing to include Sketches From the Life of Paul. This was direct advertising of the book for sale as late as 1887, in the editions of The Great Controversy being sold by colporteurs to non-Adventists. As early as 1886 these editions listed, under her name on the title page, some of her books, including Sketches From the Life of Paul, with the statement that she was the “author of” these. This practice was followed for a number of years. The mention of Sketches From the Life of Paul on the title page of The Great Controversy can be traced at least to 1892 in printings in the United States. ^* Editions published by the Seventh-day Adventist publishing house in England carry the mention of Mrs. White’s book on Paul at least as late as 1907. What a strange way to “suppress” a book! EGWC 445.3

This evident desire on the part of the publishers to keep Sketches From the Life of Paul in the memory of all who might read Mrs. White’s works, seems almost to be sufficient in itself to expose the absolutely unsupported story that the book had been “suppressed,” even to the extent of calling “in as many of the volumes as possible,” and that this suppression had actually taken place almost immediately upon publication, as the 1907 pamphleteer declared. Even Amadon’s well-intentioned statement in the press that same year becomes quite incredible. EGWC 446.1

So successful was the colporteur promotion of the 1884 Great Controversy (Spirit of Prophecy, vol. 4), that, as mentioned in the earlier historical sketch, Mrs. White revised and enlarged it in 1888 to meet the larger non-Adventist audience. Her traveling in Europe and her writing of this enlarged work had kept her from giving attention to the possible enlargement of others of the four volumes known as Spirit of Prophecy. Reference again to the historical sketch reveals that they dealt in part with certain periods of sacred history, even as volume 4. EGWC 446.2