Dear ___________,
Thank you for contacting the Ellen G. White Estate. I probably wouldn't have put in quite that way. As I understand it, the figure you asked about was derived in this manner: We have about 100,000 pages of material from Ellen G. White today, which is comprised of her published writings (books, periodical articles, pamphlets, etc.) and her letter and manuscript file. There is overlap between these two categories, of course, as some of what she wrote in those letters and manuscripts has been published, but not everything published may also be found in the letter and manuscript file. But if we calculate that, on average, a page may have about 250 words on it, and we have 100,000 pages, we end up with the figure of 25 million words from Mrs. White. Eliminating all the duplication would reduce this word count substantially. I would not venture a guess on what the "bottom line" figure might be, but I would be reluctant to say that "she wrote more than 25 million words during her lifetime."
I hope this may help. Thank you for writing, and God bless!
William Fagal
Associate Director
Ellen G. White Estate
12501 Old Columbia Pike
Silver Spring, MD 20904-6600 U.S.A.
Phone: 301 680-6550
FAX: 301 680-6559
http://www.WhiteEstate.org
