Week 2
“Preface,” four Forewards, xi – xxiv
Week number 2, Preface and the Four Forewords. (Roman Numerals 11 through 24)
Preface
This is the fourth edition of the book Alcoholics Anonymous. The first edition appeared in April 1939. In the following 16 years, more than 300,000 copies went into circulation. The second edition, published in 1955, reached a total of more than 1,150,500 copies. The third edition, which came off press in 1976, achieved a circulation of approximately 19,550,000 in all formats.
Because this book has become the basic text for our society and has helped such large number of alcoholic men and women to recovery, there exists strong sentiment against any radical changes being made in it. Therefore, the first portion of this volume, describing the A.A. recovery program, has been left untouched in the course of revisions made for the second, third, and fourth editions. The section called The Doctor's Opinion has been kept intact, just as it was originally written in 1939 by the late Dr. William D. Silkworth, our society's great medical benefactor.
The second edition added the appendices, The Twelve Traditions, and the directions for getting in touch with A.A. But the chief change was in the section of personal stories, which was expanded to reflect the fellowship's growth. Phil's story, Dr. Bob's Nightmare, and one other personal history from the first edition were retained, intact. Three were edited, and one of these was retitled. New versions of two stories were written, with new titles. Thirty completely new stories were added, and the story section was divided into three parts, under the same headings that are used now.
In the third edition, part one, Pioneers of AA, was left unchanged. Nine of the stories in part two, they stopped in time, were carried over from the second edition. Eight new stories were added. In part three, they lost nearly all. Eight stories were retained. Five new ones were added.
This fourth edition includes the 12 concepts for world service and revises the three sections of personal stories as follows: One new story has been added to Part 1, and two that originally appeared in Part 3 have been repositioned there. Six stories have been deleted. Six of the stories in Part 2 have been carried over. Eleven new ones have been added and 11 taken out. Part 3 now includes 12 new stories. Eight were removed in addition to the two that were transferred to Part 1.
All changes made over the years in the Big Book—AA member's fond nickname for this volume—have had the same purpose: to represent the current membership of Alcoholics Anonymous more accurately, and thereby to reach more alcoholics. If you have a drinking problem, we hope that you may pause in reading one of the 42 personal stories and think, "Yes, that happened to me." Or, more important, "Yes, I feel like that." Or, most important, "Yes, I believe this program can work for me too."
Foreword to First Edition (1939)
We of Alcoholics Anonymous are more than 100 men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. To show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book. For them, we hope these pages will prove so convincing that no further authentication will be necessary. We think this account of our experiences will help everyone to better understand the alcoholic. Many do not comprehend that the alcoholic is a very sick person. And besides, we are sure that our way of living has its advantages for all.
It is important that we remain anonymous, because we are too few at present to handle the overwhelming number of personal appeals which may result from this publication. Being mostly business or professional folk, we could not well carry on our occupations in such an event. We would like it understood that our alcoholic work is an avocation.
When writing or speaking publicly about alcoholism, we urge each member of our fellowship to omit his personal name, designating himself instead as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. Very earnestly, we ask the press also to observe this request, for otherwise we shall be greatly handicapped.
We are not an organization in the conventional sense of the word. There are no dues or fees whatsoever. The only requirement for membership is an honest desire to stop drinking. We are not allied with any particular faith, sect, or denomination, nor do we oppose anyone. We simply wish to be helpful to those who are afflicted. We shall be interested to hear from those who are getting results from this book, particularly from those who have commenced work with other alcoholics. We should like to be helpful to such cases. Inquiry by scientific, medical, and religious societies will be welcomed.
Foreword to Second Edition (1955)
Figures given in this foreword describe the fellowship as it was in 1955. Since the original foreword to this book was written in 1939, a wholesale miracle has taken place. Our earliest printing voiced the hope that every alcoholic who journeys will find the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous at his destination. Already, continues the early text, twos and threes and fives of us have sprung up in other communities.
Sixteen years have elapsed between our first printing of this book and the presentation in 1955 of our second edition. In that brief space, Alcoholics Anonymous has mushroomed into nearly 6,000 groups whose membership is far above 150,000 recovered alcoholics. AA has flourishing communities in the British Isles, the Scandinavian countries, South Africa, South America, Mexico, Alaska, Australia, and Hawaii. All told, promising beginnings have been made in some 50 foreign countries and U.S. possessions. Some are just now taking shape in Asia.
The spark that was to flare into the first AA group was struck at Akron, Ohio, in June 1935 during a talk between a New York stockbroker and an Akron physician. Six months earlier, the broker had been relieved of his drink obsession by a sudden spiritual experience, following a meeting with an alcoholic friend who had been in contact with the Oxford groups of that day. He had also been greatly helped by the late Dr. William D. Silkworth, a New York specialist in alcoholism. From this doctor, the broker had learned the grave nature of alcoholism.
Though he could not accept all the tenets of the Oxford groups, he was convinced of the need for moral inventory, confession of personality defects, restitution to those harmed, helpfulness to others, and the necessity of belief in and dependence upon God. Prior to his journey to Akron, the broker had worked hard with many alcoholics on the theory that only an alcoholic can help an alcoholic, but he had succeeded only in keeping sober himself.
The broker had gone to Akron on a business venture, which had collapsed, leaving him greatly in fear that he might start drinking. He suddenly realized that in order to save himself, he must carry his message to another alcoholic. That alcoholic turned out to be the Akron physician.
This physician had repeatedly tried spiritual means to resolve his alcoholic dilemma, but had failed. But when the broker gave him Dr. Silkworth's description of alcoholism and its hopelessness, the physician began to pursue the spiritual remedy for his malady with a willingness he had never before been able to muster. He sobered, never to drink again up to the moment of his death in 1950.
This seemed to prove that one alcoholic could affect another as no non-alcoholic could. It also indicated that strenuous work, one alcoholic with another, was vital to permanent recovery. Hence the two men set to work almost frantically upon alcoholics arriving in the ward of the Akron City Hospital. Their very first case, a desperate one, recovered immediately and became AA #3.
This work at Akron continued through the summer of 1935. When the broker returned to New York in the fall of 1935, the first AA group had actually been formed, though no one realized it at the time. A second small group promptly took shape at New York, to be followed in 1937 with the start of a third at Cleveland. By late 1937, the number of members having substantial sobriety time behind them was sufficient to convince the membership that a new light had entered the dark world of the alcoholic.
In the spring of 1939, publication of this volume occurred. The membership had then reached about 100 men and women. Their fledgling society began to be called Alcoholics Anonymous from the title of its own book. With the appearance of the new book, a great deal began to happen. In the fall of 1939, Fulton Oursler printed a piece in Liberty called "Alcoholics and God." This brought a rush of 800 frantic inquiries into the little New York office.
In the spring of 1940, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. gave a dinner for many of his friends to which he invited AA members to tell their stories. By March 1941, the membership had shot up to 2,000. Then Jack Alexander wrote a feature article in the Saturday Evening Post. By the close of 1941, A.A. numbered 8,000 members.
Our society then entered a fearsome and exciting adolescent period. Soon AA was beset by problems on every side. But out of this frightening experience, the conviction grew that AAs had to hang together or die separately. We had to evolve principles by which the AA groups and AA as a whole could survive and function effectively. It was decided that our leaders might serve but never govern, that each group was to be autonomous, and there was to be no professional class.
Public acceptance grew by leaps and bounds. Of alcoholics who came to AA and really tried, 50% got sober at once and remained that way. 25% sobered up after some relapses, and among the remainder, those who stayed on with AA showed improvement. About two out of three of those who left eventually began to return.
Alcoholics Anonymous is not a religious organization. Alcohol being no respecter of persons, we are an accurate cross-section of America. At present, our membership is pyramiding at a rate of about 20% a year. Yet, upon the total problem of several million actual or potential alcoholics in the world, we have made only a scratch.
Foreword to Third Edition (1976)
By March 1976, the total worldwide membership of Alcoholics Anonymous was conservatively estimated at more than 1 million, with almost 28,000 groups meeting in over 90 countries. Surveys indicate that AA is reaching out to a wider and wider range.
Women now make up more than one-fourth of the membership. Among newer members, the proportion is nearly one-third. Seven percent of the AAs surveyed are less than 30 years of age, among them many in their teens. The 12 steps trace exactly the same path to recovery that was blazed by the earliest members.
In spite of the increase in size, at its core it remains simple and personal. Each day, somewhere in the world, recovery begins when one alcoholic talks with another alcoholic, sharing experience, strength, and hope.
Foreword to Fourth Edition (2001)
This fourth edition came off press in November 2001. Since 1976, worldwide membership of AA has just about doubled to an estimated 2 million or more, with nearly 100,800 groups meeting in approximately 150 countries. Alcoholics Anonymous has been translated into 43 languages.
When the phrase, "we are people who normally would not mix," was written in 1939, it referred to a fellowship composed largely of men and a few women with similar backgrounds. Those words have proved far more visionary than the founding members could have imagined. The stories added represent a membership whose characteristics of age, gender, race, and culture have widened and deepened to encompass virtually everyone.
Taking advantage of technological advances, AA members with computers can participate in meetings online. Modem to modem or face to face, AAs speak the language of the heart in all its power and simplicity.
Homework
Reread: Pages Roman numeral 11 to 24.
Next Week: Read "The Doctor's Opinion," pages Roman numeral 25 to 32.
Daily: Read pages 86 to 88 morning and night. Try to do what it says.
Daily Readings