Marian Davis
1847-1904
Marian Davis served as a literary assistant to Ellen G. White for 25 years,
from 1879 until her death in 1904. She accompanied Mrs. White in her travels in
America, in Europe, and Australia. W. K. Kellogg, the cereal maker, was married
to Marian's sister, Ella. In the early 1880s Marian helped to prepare for
publication Testimonies for the Church, volumes 1-4. After she joined
Ellen White in Europe in 1886, she assisted in the preparation of The Great
Controversy (1888 edition). She also assisted with Patriarchs and
Prophets.
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. Describing Marian's work,
Ellen White wrote: "She does her work in this way: She takes my articles
which are published in the papers, and pastes them in blank books. She also has
a copy of all the letters I write. In preparing a chapter for a book, Marian
remembers that I have written something on that special point, which may make
the matter more forcible. She begins to search for this, and if when she finds
it, she sees that it will make the chapter more clear, she adds it. The books
are not Marian's productions, but my own, gathered from all my writings."--Letter
61a, 1900 (EGW Biography, vol. 4, p. 381).
After finishing her editorial work on The Desire of Ages in 1898,
Marian turned to Christ's Object Lessons. In that year alone, Ellen
White wrote more than 30 manuscripts on the topic of Christ's parables,
providing a rich source from which Marian Davis worked. Ellen White dedicated
all of the royalties from this book to help pay the debts on denominational
educational institutions.
Near the end of 1901, Marian Davis helped compile material for Testimonies
for the Church, volume 7. Much of what Ellen White had written regarding the
developing sanitarium work in America was included in this volume.
When Ellen White traveled east in the spring of 1904, she left Marian behind
to continue the work of preparing for publication her latest manuscript,
entitled The Ministry of Healing. To her great disappointment, Marian
was unable to finish this work, having to lay it aside after contracting
tuberculosis. She died on October 25, 1904.
Though Ellen White had many literary assistants throughout her life, none
seemed more highly valued to her than Marian Davis.
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