Barbara Anderson- Your new book on Russell

by IW 57 Replies latest jw friends

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  IW

  Barbara,

  I read this recently on the biblestudents.net forum:

  I know Barbara, we use to talk on the phone, when she learned I was writing a history of Pastor Russell and the IBSA. In the countless hours we spent on the phone. She revealed to me that she was going to write a biography of Br. Russell and that it was not going to be "pretty". She claims Russell was a womenizer, and that he mistreated his wife Maria. That he didn't write the Studies in the Scriptures, but that maria Russell did, and so forth. We stopped talking after she realized I was not writing an anti-Russell book, but was interested ONLY in the facts.
  
  RR

  This is fascinating! It is true that you believe Maria Russell wrote the Studies in the Scriptures? If so, could you share some of your thoughts on that?

  Thanks,

  IW
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  IW

  bttt hoping to hear from Barbara
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  slimboyfat

  Penton mentions this on page 36 of Apocalypse Delayed.
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  Athanasius

  Hi IW,

  Though most of my research has been on Joseph F. Rutherford and not Pastor Russell, Maria Russell coauthored and probably wrote most of the first five volumes of Studies in the Scriptures. Interestingly after Russell and his wife separated in 1897, he only published one more book, The New Creation, volume 6 of the Studies in the Scriptures. In the early years Maria was an associate editor and secretary-treasurer of the Watch Tower and a capable writer in her own right.

  You might find Jim Penton's Apocalypse Delayed helpful. On page 36 he mentions Maria's coauthoring of the early volumes of Studies in the Scriptures and gives his source information.
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  Leolaia

  Actually, this could make for an interesting literary analysis.

  We have material that Maria Russell wrote on her own (i.e. the Twain One). We have material that Charlie wrote on his own (i.e. Volume 6). Ignoring common religious and stylistic features that they might have in common and looking only at distinctive quirks in writing styles as found in these two works (such as choice between grammatical constructions), it might be possible to find good evidence of authorship in the disputed volumes....presuming that their writing styles are distinct enough from each other.
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  steve2

  I thought it was no secret that Russell increasingly reacted in a negative manner towards his wife. At least part of his negativity may have been annoyance and jealousy over his wife's own significant organizational abilities. She was no shrinking violet and was very capable of meeting his ego-driven putdowns of her with necessary force. Go girl!

  On a related note, I understand Russell had an affair - or at least a well-known attraction - to a woman whose surname was Ball and this led to the end of his marriage. Does this ring a bell (or bounce ) with any other posters?
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  Lady Lee

  Apocalype Delayed by Penton states:

  In addition, Maria resented what she considered to be Russell's lack of respect for her. She was a much better educated person than he was. Not only had she graduated from high school, but she had received teacher training at the Pittsburgh Curry Normal School. Hence she was able to help her husband with editing Zion's Watch Tower, wrote numerous articles for that journal, and co-authored the first four volumes of Studies in the Scriptures.(108) Nevertheless, probably because there was no intimate relationship between them, he showed little interest in her except as a writing and publishing assistant. She therefore came to feel that he had no more regard for her than for a serving woman.(109)

  Both the references (108 and 109) refer to the transcripts of record Russell v. Russell pages 10-17 and 117-127 respectively.
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  Lady Lee

  oops one thing I forgot I wanted to say.

  The conflict between then may have been a factor in removing authorship from WT literature.

  JWs would be shocked to find out about the work Barbara Anderson and other women did researching and (I believe but I could be wrong so please correct me) writing WT literature

  I've heard several women here say that they wrote their husbands talks.

  Do we see a pattern here?

  Use the women for what you can and hide it. Oh I think they do that to the men now too don't they?
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  Lady Lee

  steve

  If you go into the BEST of and look for Russell or try Farkel you will find more info that you could dream of about the Rose Ball connection - all very well verified.

  However no one will ever really know what happened.

  But if an JW tried to pull that stuff he would be DFed pretty quick - OK maybe not. it would depend on who his buddies were.
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  IW

  Lady Lee,

  Both the references (108 and 109) refer to the transcripts of record Russell v. Russell pages 10-17 and 117-127 respectively.

  Have these transcripts been posted here yet? The claim that Maria co-authored the Volumes is an explosive one, imo.

  Leolaia,

  A literary analysis would be so interesting! The Pastoral Bible Student's online library has at least two of Maria's works.

  IW