Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Comments on W. C. White Letter

W. C. White’s explanation for his failure to include a statement in the preface as to the use of other authors’ material in the 1883 work on Paul’s life might be considered, also, a reasonable explanation, in part, for the failure to include such a statement in the 1884 edition of The Great Controversy. The reader will recall that the statement first appears in the 1888 edition. EGWC 452.1

However, the primary explanation, we believe, for the failure to publish such an explanatory preface was that the question of literary borrowing in relation to inspiration and to plagiarism had not been raised by Mrs. White’s critics in the years immediately preceding the publication of these two works. We need not spend time anticipating the question of someone who may now say that W. C. White cannot, by accepting the blame for the absence of such explanatory prefaces, excuse his mother, for she was a prophet and should have anticipated the hostile questioning that arose. This is simply a variant of the unwarranted charge that we have repeatedly exposed; namely, that a prophet is proved false if it can be shown that he does not know all things. W. C. White, in his statement regarding the preface, was not implying that he shared in any way her prophetic office or had partnership in the writing of her books. There is a difference between writing a book and assuming responsibility for seeking to make the purpose and the method of the book writing free from misunderstanding. EGWC 452.2

Note what W. C. White says regarding the interest in the book after the edition was exhausted: “The people have been very impatient while waiting so long for a new edition. Some have advertised far and wide for copies of the book, and this may have given the impression to some that we hesitate to reprint.” ^* It is frequently the experience of publishers that after a book goes out of print there are persons who make a clamor for it; in fact, the impossibility of securing it adds to their desire for it. That has been true of various of Mrs. White’s earlier works which were out of print for years and then were published again, but generally in enlarged and revised form. A study of the bibliography at the end of this book will provide ample proof of this statement that various of her books, after being out of print, were reprinted in revised, and often enlarged, form. EGWC 452.3

Let us cite two examples. Gospel Workers was allowed to go out of print. It was years before the new enlarged, revised edition was published. In the meantime there were those who much desired copies but could not secure them. Experience and Views, published in 1851, was out of print for years, and finally was reprinted in 1882 as a part of the book Early Writings. And before the republication there were repeated endeavors to secure copies. Incidentally, as the reader will recall, critics charged that the denomination had “suppressed” the book because of certain of its contents. We really have before us a variant form of the charge of suppression, and that charge, we think, has been rather fully canvassed in chapter 17. ^* EGWC 453.1