October 11

October 11 – AM          Page 141, To Employers, Chapter 10

This is not to say that all alcoholics are honest and upright when not drinking.  Of course that isn’t so, and such people often may impose on you.  Seeing your attempt to understand and help, some men will try to take advantage of your kindness.  If you are sure your man does not want to stop, he may as well be discharged, the sooner the better.  You are not doing him a favor by keeping him on.  Firing such an individual may prove a blessing to him.  It may be just the jolt he needs.  I know, in my own particular case, that nothing my company could have done would have stopped me for, so long as I was able to hold my position, I could not possibly realize how serious my situation was.  Had they fired me first, and had they then taken steps to see that I was presented with the solution contained in this book, I might have returned to them six months later, a well man.

October 11 – PM          Page xi-xii, Preface

The second printing of the first edition added the appendix “Spiritual Experience”; in the second edition, the appendices on A.A. Tradition, the “medical view” and “religious view” of A.A., the Lasker Award and information on how to contact A.A. were added, and the appendix on the Alcoholic Foundation was discontinued. But the chief change was in the section of personal stories, which was expanded to reflect the Fellowship’s growth. “Bill’s Story,”  “Doctor 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 I (“Pioneers of A.A.”) was left unchanged.  Nine of the stories in Part II (“They Stopped in Time”) were carried over from the second edition; eight new stories were added.  In Part III (“They Lost Nearly All”), eight stories were retained; five new ones were added.