1870-1884 ELLEN G. WHITE. The Great Controversy. First Editions Owned by Adventist Pioneer, George King.

A very rare set of all four volumes, each first editions, of Ellen G. White's Great Controversy. Each volume, published individually, rare in its own right, and each a first edition. Volume 2 signed by George King with what appear to be his marginal notes throughout [as well as some later marginal notes, likely not in his hand].

King was founder of the Colporteur movement for the Seventh Day Adventists and the founder of the Seventh Day Adventist movement in Guyana [West Indies]. 

George Albert King (1847–1906) was born in Toronto, Canada, and raised in a Methodist home, his father being a class leader in the church.In 1867, at the age of 20, George left Canada, intending to stake a claim of land in the western United States. About ten years later, still unsettled, his journeys took him to northern Texas where he was attracted to tent meetings conducted by Dudley M. Canright and Robert M. Kilgore and accepted the Seventh-day Adventist message that they preached.

In the spring of 1878, while James and Ellen White were residing in Texas, seeking to develop the Adventist work there, King began a relationship with Elder James White. King wanted to become a preacher, but because of his hesitant way of speaking and lack of education, James White doubted he had the gift for it. Yet, wanting to give the young man a chance, White asked Richard Godsmark, a farmer who lived near Battle Creek, Michigan, to let King work on the farm for board and room until an opportunity arose for King to gain experience assisting with tent meetings.

Godsmark encouraged King to practice preaching to the empty chairs in the family home, and then to a live audience made up of the Godsmarks and visiting church friends on a Sabbath afternoon. The trial sermon was a complete disaster. Mrs. Godsmark suggested that George might “preach” more effectively by selling Adventist literature from house to house. Her husband financed the venture with an initial supply of tracts. In his first week, King’s total sales amounted to 62 cents. But he had found his calling—and really began the Adventist Colporteur movement.  

In addition to helping George King find a role in the work of the gospel, the White family appears to have helped him find a wife. On December 3, 1878, while in Texas, Ellen White wrote her son, Willie C. White, informing him that “Brother King” would soon visit him in Battle Creek. “I wish he and Millie Severns, or some other good girl, would strike up a bargain,” she wrote, adding, “There are no real good girls here.” Two years later, on December 29, 1880, George married Mehitable (“Millie’) Sevrens (1844-1936) in a ceremony officiated by James White in Battle Creek.

King’s success selling Kellogg’s Home Hand Book may have helped inspire him with the thought that a large volume setting forth Adventist biblical teachings could be sold with success to the general public on subscription. During the General Conference session convened in December 1881 in Battle Creek, King lobbied the Review and Herald Publishing Association to combine Uriah Smith’s influential books Thoughts on Daniel and Thoughts on the Revelation into a single volume, Thoughts on Daniel and the Revelation, for sale by colporteurs.

After experimental copies of already-printed sections of the two books bound together sold well, the publishing house agreed to print 5,000 copies of the combined book in a larger size and enhanced format, including striking illustrations from the prophetic books. As a condition, King had to agree to take responsibility for selling 1,000 copies.

When the first copy rolled off the press on April 3, 1882, King took it to a broom factory in Battle Creek where he was working temporarily and made his first sale to D. W. Reavis for $2.50. Within four days he had taken orders for another 25 copies. It was a key moment in launching a decades-long era in which canvassing subscription books was a prominent feature of Seventh-day Adventist literature evangelism.

During the next few years King canvassed far and wide in the United States—including Indiana, Colorado, New Mexico, and several southern states. He also made presentations on colporteur ministry at Adventist meetings that exerted a powerful influence inspiring others to take up the work.

In 1887 King, along with G. E. Rupert, introduced Adventism to British Guiana (now Guyana). King sold books and Rupert led out in meetings leading to establishment of a 40-member congregation in the city of Georgetown that was “the first Adventist Church in the Caribbean.” Inability to tolerate the climate forced them to return to the United States after a few months, but not long thereafter King returned for further canvassing in the West Indies. Prior to formal organization of Adventist work in the region, King left “several thousand dollars’ worth of books containing the message.”

After returning from the West Indies, King devoted the remainder of his life to advancing the Adventist cause in greater New York City. Again here he was a pioneer because it was not until the late 1880s that the church established a lasting presence of any kind in the city. Along with canvassing, King’s activities included operating, with Carl Rasmussen, a vegetarian restaurant in Brooklyn that Ellen White visited in November 1901. Five years later, on November 4, 1906, he died of pneumonia in New York at the age of 59. [Encyclopedia of Seventh Day Adventists]

White, Ellen G. The Spirit of Prophecy. The Great Controversy Between Christ and His Angels and Satan and His Angels. Vol. I. Battle Creek, Mich. Steam Press of the Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association. 1870. 414pp.

White, Ellen G. The Spirit of Prophecy. The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan. Life, Teachings and Miracles of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Vol. II. Battle Creek, Mich. Steam Press of the Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association. 1877. 400pp.

White, Ellen G. The Spirit of Prophecy. The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan. The Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Vol. III. Battle Creek, Mich. Steam Press of the Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association. 1878. 442pp.

White, Ellen G. The Spirit of Prophecy. The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan. From the Destruction of Jerusalem to the End of the Controversy. By Mrs. E. G. White. Vol. IV. Battle Creek, Mich. Steam Press of the Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association. 1884. 506pp.

Each copy good; two volumes fully rebound two others retain original boards. Variously toned, some textual markings, ex library markings.