Bill Wilson's working draft manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous "Big Book"....

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Bill Wilson's working draft manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous "Big Book". The working draft manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous (published in April 1939), being an original multilith copy with a multitude of annotations and revisions by several founders of AA (some by William Griffith Wilson [aka "Bill W."], but most in the hand of Hank Parkhurst), 161 pages (three of which are written in pencil by several hands); 11 x 8.5 in.; 280 x 215 mm; Newark, NJ, 1939; the annotations and revisions in lead, green, and red pencil (with a few in ink), lightly browned. Each leaf encased in nitrogen-filled mylar sleeves by Northeast Document Conservation Center of Andover Massachusetts and bound in a red cloth binder with a morocco lettering piece ("Printer's Copy M[anu]S[cript] Alcoholics Anonymous"). With a presentation leaf bound in inscribed by Lois Wilson (Bill's widow): "I joyfully give this multilith copy of the AA book, one of my most precious possessions, to you, dear Barry [Barry Leach, close personal friend and confidante of both Bill and Lois], as evidence of my deep gratitude for all you have done for AA, for Al-Anon, & particularly for me ... 1/1/78." The Working Manuscript of One of the Most Influential Books of the Twentieth Century... The Library of Congress ranks Alcoholics Anonymous (the Big Book) the number one nonfiction work in their "Books that Shaped America." One of the best selling books of all time - the thirty-millionth copy of Alcoholics Anonymous was presented to the American Medical Association in 2011. Alcoholics Anonymous, the genesis of the "12-step method," serves as the blueprint for recovery of alcoholism, as well as other addictions, in over 150 countries around the world. At last count, Alcoholics Anonymous has been translated into 43 different languages. Best-selling AA historian and author, Dr. Ernest Kurtz, said "Not only is this Manuscript the most important nonfiction manuscript in all history, I consider it right up there with the Magna Carta because of the personal freedom it has provided so many millions of alcoholics!" In the summer of 1934, Dr. William D. Silkworth diagnosed Bill W. as an incurable alcoholic. In August of that same year, Ebby T., a close friend of Bill W.'s, got sober with the help of the Oxford Group. The Oxford Group, led by Pennsylvanian Dr. Frank Buchman, was an association of people who believed that moral compromise was destructive of human character and relationships, and that moral strength was necessary for a just society. Members of the Group attempted to become the best people they could through the process of being absolutely honest, absolutely pure, absolutely unselfish, and absolutely loving. They placed "heavy emphasis on personal work, one member with another ... They also practiced a type of confession, which they called 'sharing': the making of amends for harms done they called 'restitution.' They believed deeply in their 'quiet time,' a meditation practiced by groups and individuals alike, in which the guidance of God was sought for every detail of living, great or small" (Bill W., A Fragment of History). The Oxford Group also believed in religious tolerance and did not require associates to worship God in any prescribed manner. In late November Ebby discussed his newfound beliefs with Bill W., telling him that he no longer struggled with the desire to drink, that after he admitted his life was unmanageable while drinking, after he had become honest with himself and another person, and after he prayed to God for guidance, he was released from the obsession to drink. A few weeks later, Bill W. entered the Charles B. Towns Hospital, where he again encountered Dr. Silkworth. Dr. Silkworth was a very forward-thinking physician who believed that alcoholism was an illness, "an obsession of the mind coupled with an allergy of the body" (Bill W., A Fragment of History). Bill W.'s acceptance of Dr. Silkworth's theory of alcoholism as a physical illness, instead of a moral failing, coupled with his faith in Ebby's spiritual principles, enabled him to sober up and to join the Oxford Group himself. Bill W. insisted on devoting his time exclusively to active alcoholics; this exclusivity eventually separated him from the Group who wanted him to help everyone become a better person. After five months of committing himself to helping only alcoholics, Bill still had not succeeded with even one person. Dr. Silkworth suggested that he change his approach, that he focus on the medical problems alcoholics face while active and then discuss the spiritual principles that are necessary to follow in order for an alcoholic to remain sober. Furthermore, Dr. Silkworth believed Bill W. would get through to alcoholics where he had failed simply because Bill W. was also an alcoholic. In May 1935, Bill W. was in Akron, Ohio, on a business trip that proved unsuccessful. Terribly dejected and wanting a drink, it suddenly occurred to him that he needed to talk to another alcoholic if he wanted to stay sober. After many telephone calls, he found Dr. Robert Smith, an active alcoholic whose wife persuaded him to meet with Bill W. for 15 minutes. This first meeting between the co-founders of AA lasted several hours and on 10 June 1935, Dr. Bob finally had his last drink; that day was the official birth date of Alcoholics Anonymous, a foundation based on the revolutionary idea that only an alcoholic can help another alcoholic stay sober. Between 1937 (New York) and 1939 (Akron), AA separated completely from the Oxford Group. In February of 1938, John D. Rockefeller donated $5,000 to the AA fellowship and this money signaled the beginning of The Alcoholic Foundation, which allowed Bill W. and other members of the group to begin writing the book, Alcoholics Anonymous. The present manuscript begins with a foreword discussing the fellowship, and how it was "important that [they] remain anonymous ... [and they] ask [that] the press also, to observe this request, for otherwise [they would] be greatly handicapped." Page 1. Entitled The Doctor's Opinion, includes a letter from a doctor endorsing AA and its practices, as well as his belief "that the body of the alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind. It does not satisfy [alcoholics] to be told that [they] cannot control [their] drinking just because [they] were maladjusted to life ... These things were true to some extent, in fact, to a considerable extent with some of [them]. But [they] are sure that [their] bodies were sickened as well..." Chapter One, Bill's Story, is Bill W.'s experience with active drinking and his recovery. "Liquor ceased to be a luxury; it became a necessity. 'Bathtub' gin, two bottles a day, and often three, got to be routine ... This went on endlessly, and I began to waken very early in the morning shaking violently. A tumbler full of gin followed by half a dozen bottles of beer would be required if I were to eat any breakfast. Nevertheless, I still thought I could control the situation, and there were periods of sobriety which renewed my wife's hope. Gradually things got worse ... The curve of my declining moral and bodily health fell off like a ski-jump. After a time I returned to the hospital ... [I] was informed that it would all end with heart failure during delirium tremens, or I would develop a wet brain, perhaps within a year ... At the hospital [months later] I was separated from alcohol for the last time. Treatment seemed wise, for I showed signs of delirium tremens. I have not had a drink since. There I humbly offered myself to God, as I then understood Him, to do with me as He would. I placed myself unreservedly under His care and direction. I admitted for the first time that of myself I was nothing; that without Him I was lost. I ruthlessly faced my sins and became willing to have my new found Friend take them away, root and branch ... While I lay in the hospital the thought came that there were thousands of hopeless alcoholics who might be glad to have what had been so freely given to me. Perhaps I could help some of them. They in turn might work with others ... We commenced to make many fast friends and a fellowship has grown up among us of which it is a wonderful thing to feel a part. The joy of living we really have, even under pressure and difficulty ... We meet frequently at our different homes, so that newcomers may find the fellowship they seek ... Most of us feel we need to look no further for Utopia, nor even Heaven. We have it right with us here and now..." The remaining chapters, There is a Solution, More About Alcoholism, We Agnostics, How it Works, Into Action, Working with Others, To Wives, The Family Afterward, To Employers, and A Vision for You, discuss the theory of alcoholism as a fatal physical disease combined with mental obsession, the combating of that disease through complete abstinence and the practice of certain spiritual principles, the finding of a personal Higher Power that is greater than oneself, how the 12 steps are worked and applied to daily life, how performing service with or for other recovering alcoholics helps keep one sober, and suggestions for how a newly sober recovering alcoholic can return to his family, friends, job, etc., and be productive while remaining sober. The final seventy-nine pages in this copy are devoted to "Personal Stories," actual experiences of alcoholics who found recovery by practicing the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous. After the completion of the typescript of Alcoholics Anonymous and two months before its publication, the AA founders had printed (some 200 to 400) copies-the multilith process- and then distributed copies of the proposed book to approximately 100 (possibly less) of their members along with doctors, psychiatrists and clergymen. This would allow them to review the text and submit criticisms and suggestions for changes before the actual publication. All of these comments and suggested revisions were then collected onto one "master"-the multilith offered here-which was kept at the business office of Bill Wilson and Hank Parkhurst in Newark. "Mulilith" was a contemporary trade name for an offset printing process that used an 'ink and water' technology which produced higher quality copies than the older mimeograph technology. According to the anonymous author of the first essay, "Historical Context and Suggested Framework for Reading the Working Manuscript" in the facsimile edition published by Hazelden Publishing in 2010, the present working manuscript "is a valuable snapshot taken from a few critical weeks in 1939 that dramatically captures the controversy and creativity that went into producing the book that would explain AA's program of recovery to the world." As this master working draft shows, there were a tremendous number of suggestions for changes and many of them were eventually accepted and incorporated into the published book. However, perhaps most important here is that this copy shows the many suggestions that were made, but not taken. The manuscript demonstrates that many of the basic concepts of AA were being formulated as the story of AA was being written. Certainly the most important single suggestion-which came from Dr. Howard (a psychiatrist from Montclair, NJ, who has never been further identified)-was that the entire "tone" of the work had to be altered. Dr. Howard insisted that an authoritarian "you must" style be changed to reflect a "this is how it worked for us" approach - which required a host of revisions throughout, even to alterations in seven of the Twelve Steps. The multitudinous changes filling the present pages reflect the efforts of a dedicated group of contributors who diligently worked in tandem to create a treatise of just the right tone and attitude to affect the lives of millions. Wilson, Parkhurst, and their secretary Ruth Hock, transcribed all of the suggested changes onto this master copy in early 1939, including many that were not incorporated in the published version. Occasionally, the manuscript indicates who made the suggested emendation. Undoubtedly, a final "printer's copy" typescript was prepared, but such a typescript is not known to exist. According to the anonymous AA historians commissioned by the present owner to write the second essay, "The Big Book Revealed" in the Hazelden facsimile edition: "This working manuscript is, then, the missing link in our understanding of what transpired between the first draft of Alcoholics Anonymous and the first published edition." Eleven months after the first writing had begun, Alcoholics Anonymous was published in April 1939. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick wrote this in his review: "... This book represents the pooled experience of one hundred men and women who have been the victims of alcoholism-many of them declared hopeless by the experts and who have won their freedom and recovered their sanity and self-control ... The book is not in the least sensational. It is notable for its sanity, restraint, and freedom from overemphasis and fanaticism. It is a sober, careful, tolerant, sympathetic treatment of the alcoholic's problem and of the successful techniques by which its co-authors have won their freedom ... Altogether the book had the accent of reality and is written with unusual intelligence and skill, humor and modesty mitigating what could easily have been a strident and harrowing tale" (Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, pages. 322-23). AA is now an international organization that has helped millions of alcoholics cope with their problem. The 12-step program has been adopted by hundreds of other organizations to combat myriad disorders, including narcotics addiction, over-eating, gambling, and sex addiction. Alcoholics Anonymous (nicknamed the "Big Book") is now in its fourth edition. In an article about the present manuscript in the New York Times (14 June 2004), Susan Cheever, the author of a biography of Bill Wilson, My Name is Bill (2004), is quoted on its enormous impact: "This is one of the 10 or 20 most important books written in the 20th century, probably the most important non-fiction book. This guy, with 'Dr. Bob,' figured out how to save alcoholics. They changed the way we think about human nature." Indeed, the importance and the impact of the original working manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous cannot be denied. The last paragraph of the second essay "The Big Book Revealed" in the Hazelden facsimile edition succinctly states the extraordinary importance of the present manuscript: "Amid the wealth of literature on Alcoholics Anonymous, you have in your hands the greatest treasure of all, the beginning of it all, the charter of the Fellowship." Fine Books and Collections ranks this auction purchase among the top ten of 2007, along with the Magna Carta, and comparing this working manuscript of the Big Book to that 'Great Charter' of our constitutional liberty is not at all far-fetched. Both great works offer us freedom from oppression, and both have-in different ways-changed the world for the better. But finally, the value of the book is measured by the people it touches. As many AA members would say, 'What's a book worth that saves your life?'" Literature: Wilson, William G., A Fragment of History: Origin of the Twelve Steps, an article in the AA Grapevine, July 1953. Reprinted in The Language of the Heart, AA Grapevine, Inc., New York, 1988, pp. 195-202. Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, A Brief History. New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1971. Cheever, Susan. My Name Is Bill. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004. Thomsen, Robert. Bill W. Center City, Minnesota: Hazelden Pittman Archives Press, 1975 The Book That Started It All: The Original Working Manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous. Center City, Minnesota: Hazelden Publishing, 2010. Note: Profiles in History would like to thank William H. Schaberg of Athena Rare Books for his kind assistance in preparing this description.