The Up-and-Down Experience of Fannie Bolton

The sad story of Francis (Fannie) E. Bolton would not be mentioned here except for the fact that critics still use her to cast a cloud over Ellen White’s integrity. Shortly after 28-year-old Miss Bolton was baptized in early 1888, she was enthusiastically recommended to Ellen White for employment. Although she knew relatively little about Mrs. White before joining her staff, she worked, on and off, as a literary assistant for about seven years. The files contain a long exchange of letters between Mrs. White and Fannie Bolton, as well as other correspondence between Fannie and others until her death in 1926. ^{8“The Fannie Bolton Story—A Collection of Source Documents (Updated, March, 1990),” Ellen G. White Estate, Washington, D.C.}MOL 479.4

Miss Bolton, a gifted writer with an artistic bent, seemed at first to be an ideal co-worker for Marian Davis. ^{9See p. 110.} Soon, however, difficulties arose. After a few months, Ellen White wrote about her concern for Fannie: “I want her to recover from this nervousness ... and in order to do this she must take time to rest the brain that the nerves may not be completely out of tune like our old organ.... I want you to get waked up to this matter. Do not be a creature of impulse.” ^{10Letter 76, 1888, “The Fannie Bolton Story,” p. 1.}MOL 479.5

Because of Fannie’s nervous, unsettled temperament, Ellen White decided not to take her with her on speaking appointments: “Fannie is not the one to go with me [on trips]. It is too great a tax for her to take the discourses and to write them out. As soon as I came here they fastened upon her to get out articles for the paper, but after a little [time] I could not consent to it and again she feels so intensely that she becomes ... much exhausted.” ^{11Letter 66, 1889, Testimonies for the Church 5:2.}MOL 479.6

Fannie Bolton’s nervous weakness made her “utterly exhausted” when she prepared some of Ellen White’s letters of reproof. ^{12Testimonies for the Church 5:8.} In addition, she thought that she could make the letters better by substituting her words for Ellen White’s, leading Mrs. White to write: “I think Fannie feels that many of my expressions can be bettered, and she takes the life and point out of them.” ^{13Testimonies for the Church 5:8, 9.}MOL 479.7

Not long after Fannie Bolton had been hired (June 1889), W. C. White, the overseer of Ellen White’s editorial assistants, concluded that Fannie could do her best work elsewhere: “I believe that Sister Fannie Bolton is much better qualified for work on a journal like the Pacific Health Journal, for in this she would have more occasion for original work, and it would not demand the accuracy which our work on the Signs must have.” ^{14Testimonies for the Church 5:2.}MOL 479.8

Was Fannie Bolton instructed carefully about her role as an assistant? Was she familiar with the way prophets received divine revelations? Did she work from a background of verbal inspiration rather than thought inspiration?MOL 480.1

In 1933 W. C. White and D. E. Robinson (another editorial supervisor) reviewed how she was instructed, emphasizing that “only Mrs. White’s thoughts were to be used” and only “her own words as far as grammatically consistent in expressing those thoughts.” ^{15“It was explained to Miss Bolton, as was made clear to other workers who shared a part in the copying and correcting of Mrs. White’s writings for publication, that the matters revealed to Mrs. White in vision were not a word-for-word narration of events with their lessons, but that they were generally flashlight or panoramic views of various scenes in the experiences of men, sometimes in the past, and sometimes in the future, together with the lessons connected with these experiences....
“Miss Bolton learned that the things revealed to Mrs. White were sometimes written out immediately after the vision, and that other things were not spoken of or written out till a long time afterward....
“In cases where paragraphs and sentences lost some of their power because of imperfect arrangement, Mrs. White’s secretaries were instructed to make transpositions, leaving out what was clearly a repetition, when preparing matter for the printer.... It was made emphatic that only Mrs. White’s thoughts were to be used, and also her own words as far as grammatically consistent in expressing those thoughts. In no case was the copyist given the privilege of introducing thoughts not found in Mrs. White’s manuscripts.” Bio., vol. 4, pp. 238, 239.}MOL 480.2

Editing another’s manuscripts was a pleasurable challenge to Marian Davis ^{16See p. 116.} but not for Fannie. She soon felt that she was burying her own talent in editing someone else’s materials, and so she was released in 1891 to attend college at Ann Arbor, Michigan. ^{17“The Fannie Bolton Story,” p. 29.} Shortly after Fannie was released, she wrote a warm, congenial letter to Ellen White which included: “Dear Sister White, forgive me [for] all; I know you do. I do love you, and thank you for all your many acts of love toward me.” ^{18Testimonies for the Church 5:2, 3.}MOL 480.3

Five times Ellen White endured this pattern of confrontation and Fannie’s confession of misrepresenting her, until Fannie finally left Mrs. White’s employ in May 1896. On her ocean voyage returning to the United States from Australia, Fannie wrote: “I know your prayers will follow me. Thank you again for your patience and kindness and mercy to me. I go home with much lighter heart than I could have done before this.” ^{19Testimonies for the Church 5:71.}MOL 480.4