Plagiarism During Ellen White’s Time

The Essence of Plagiarism

Webster’s 1828 definition of plagiarism:

“The act of purloining another man's literary works, or introducing passages from another man's writings and putting them off as one's own; literary theft.”

Irving Hexham, of the Department of Religious Studies at College of Calgary defines plagiarism as “the deliberate attempt to deceive the reader through the appropriation and representation as one’s own work and words of others.” (Irving Hexham, “The Plague of Plagiarism,” http://c.web.umkc.edu/cowande/plague.htm)

With this in mind the question must be asked:

Did Ellen White attempt to deceive her readers into thinking that everything she wrote was original to herself?

If she was attempting to deceive people, she would logically try to hide her sources from those who read her writings most, not allowing the Advent people to know of, let alone read, these works.

The Desire of Ages Sources

The Desire of Ages was first published in 1898.

Some of the main sources Ellen used for this book included:

Hanna's Life of Christ

Geikie’s Life of Christ

Farrar’s Life of Christ

Andrew’s Life of our Lord

March’s Night Scenes in the Bible

Etc.

In 1884, 14 years before The Desire of Ages was written, the Signs of the Times recommended a number of books, including several sources used by Ellen White:

[ADD REST OF SUBSEQUENT SLIDES]

Ellen White likewise acknowledged the various books on Christ’s life in The Desire of Ages, describing how they are very informative. But she also describes how the purpose of her work and the works of others is different:

“It is the purpose of this book to set forth Jesus Christ as the one in whom every longing may be satisfied. There is many a “Life of Christ” written, excellent books, large funds of information, elaborate essays on chronology and contemporaneous history, customs, and events, with much of the teaching and many glimpses of the many-sided life of Jesus of Nazareth. DA 17.5

“It is not, however, the purpose of this work to set forth a harmony of the gospels, or even to give in strictly chronological order the important events and wonderful lessons of the life of Christ; its purpose is to present the love of God as revealed in his Son, the divine beauty of the life of Christ, of which all may partake, and not to satisfy the desires of the merely curious nor the questionings of critics. DA 17.6

Great Controversy Sources

The Great Controversy as we know it was published first in September 1884.

In 1882 Ellen White specifically encouraged both ministers and the laity to read D’Aubigne’s History of the Reformation, which she used as a historical reference often in The Great Controversy.

“Provide something to be read during these long winter evenings. For those who can procure it, D’Aubigne’s History of the Reformation will be both interesting and profitable. From this work we may gain some knowledge of what has been accomplished in the past in the great work of reform.” Review and Herald, Dec. 26, 1882, p. 789

The Church had been selling this work for almost a year (at least) when Ellen White made this endorsement and began to offer it as part of a premium subscription offer the very year The Great Controversy was published!

New subscribers to the Review and Herald were likewise gifted a copy of Wylie’s History of the Waldenses as part of a subscription offer in January 1883. The same thing was done by the Signs of the Times in January of 1884.

Sketches on the Life of Paul

The main historical work Ellen which she drew from when writing Sketches on the Life of Paul was Conybeare and Howson’s book entitled Life and Epistles of St. Paul.

Ellen White finished writing Sketches on the Life of Paul in June of 1883.

In January of 1882 the Review and Herald sold Conybeare and Howson’s book along with a few others.

In January of 1883 they specifically advertised and sold this one by itself:

“THE Publishers desire to add several thousand new subscribers to their lists during the next six months, and to that end, make the following LIBERAL OFFER. To each New Subscriber we will furnish THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES one year with a copy of Conybeare and Howson's LIFE AND EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL, FOR $2.25. This magnificent book offered as a premium is widely known as a work of profound learning and extensive research. It is clearly written and intensely interesting.”

Circulated because of Sabbath School lesson on life of Paul

Not only did the Church widely circulate this book before Ellen’s book was published, she even publicly advocated it herself! And she did this in February of 1883—4 months before she published her work!

“The Life of St. Paul, by Conybeare and Howson, I regard as a book of great merit, and one of rare usefulness to the earnest student of the New Testament history.” 3BIO 215.4

Conybeare and Howson’s book was offered and recommended multiple before and after her writing on the subject.

If you are trying to plagiarize certain books, would you then go out and proceed to tell everyone to not only get your books, but also the books you plagiarized from?

There is absolutely no evidence that Ellen had a nefarious intent to deceive people by passing off the works of others as her own, as most Adventists were well-read and knew of the works she drew from.

This brings us to the topic of :

Plagiarism During Ellen White’s Time

Ellen White was born in the Romantic Era and grew up in the transition leading to the Victorian Era.

Our modern view of plagiarism (the unacknowledged borrowing of words from another) did not exist until well into the Victorian Era.

According to Tillar J. Mazzeo, in his work on literary history entitled, Plagiarism and Literary Property in the Romantic Period, we read:

“Apart from the obvious strategies of citation, a work could be considered implicitly acknowledged or ‘avowed’ if a ‘well-versed’ reader could be expected to recognize the original. Ironically, the more extensive the borrowing the more likely it was to have been considered acknowledged… Historical and scientific texts, which included travel narratives and folklore, were considered by many in the period as forms of knowledge or learning rather than invention and were treated by some writers as implicitly authorless texts available for general reemployment.”

This is saying that, during the time Ellen grew up, it was well accepted for authors to reapply the words of others if the reader would be familiar with the utilized author.

Would the Adventist people be familiar with the works she used often?

It should be clear that Ellen assumed many of her readers were familiar with the works which she used, as her own church advertised, advocated, and sometimes sold those very same books!

Adventists were well read and the pioneers would borrow from each other very often.

If you have spent much time reading the articles of the pioneers it will be clear to see that they borrowed words and thoughts from each other all the time!

EXAMPLES?

This was the environment Ellen grew up in.

ALSO LEARNED FROM EHR LITERARY EXAMPLES

D.M. Canright had this mindset concerning literary borrowing about 20 years before he accused Mrs. White of plagiarism, as is evident from the following facts:

In 1863 Moses Hull wrote a book entitled The Bible from Heaven.

In 1878 D.M. Canright wrote a book entitled The Bible From Heaven.

HULL AND CANRIGHT COMPARISON CHART

Canright never once cited Moses Hull in this work, but he obviously added his own thoughts and improvements elsewhere in his book, or else no one would buy it.

“Writers who did not acknowledge their borrowings… were not considered plagiarists, no matter how extensive the correspondences, if they had improved upon the borrowed materials… So long as improvement existed, verbatim borrowings and unacknowledged sources were irrelevant.” (p. 2-4)

Since Ellen White only had a 3rd grade education, she learned how to write by reading different authors, and she, in turn, adopted their writing styles and their pre-Victorian standard of literary borrowing and lack of citations.

Some of Ellen White’s principle literary models borrowed the words of others without citing their sources, such as Daniel March (Night Scenes), Henry Melvill (Sermons), William Hanna (Life of Christ), etc.

EGW AND WAGGONER EXAMPLE?

Even John Wesley did not cite his sources, giving the following reason:

“It was a doubt with me for some time, whether I should not subjoin to every note I received from them the name of the author from whom it was taken; especially considering I had transcribed some, and abridged many more, almost in the words of the author. But upon farther consideration, I resolved to name none, that nothing might divert the mind of the reader from keeping close to the point in view, and receiving what was spoken only according to its own intrinsic value.” (p. 5)

According to F.D. Nichols, this is one of the reasons why Ellen White did not cite her sources:

“In general, it did not occur to these writers to put quotation marks around every phrase or sentence they might borrow, much less to give documentary reference. They seemed to reason that they were drawing from a common pile of building material that had been produced by earlier literary builders. They saw no reason why they ought not to be free to pick up a brick here or a board there, or even several boards nailed together, to incorporate into the edifice that they were constructing.” F.D. Nichols, Ellen G. White and Her Critics p. 407