Anonymous - The Book That Started It All : the Original Working Manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous

The Book That Started It All

The Book That Started It All

The Original Working Manuscript

of Alcoholics Anonymous

Hazelden Publishing

Center City, Minnesota 55012

800-328-9000
hazelden.org/bookstore

2010 by Hazelden Foundation

All rights reserved. Published 2010

First printing, September 2010

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwisewithout the express written permission of the publisher. Failure to comply with these terms may expose you to legal action and damages for copyright infringement.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The book that started it all : the original working manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-61649-522-0

1. Alcoholics AnonymousHistory. 2. Alcoholics AnonymousHistorySources. 3. AlcoholicsRehabilitation. 4. Twelve-step programs.

HV5278.A78B66 2010

362.292dc22

2010021440

Editors note

Alcoholics Anonymous, AA, and the Big Book are registered trademarks of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. The speech on pages ).

Cover design by David Spohn

Interior design and typesetting by Kinne Design

This book was printed on acid-free paper.

Production note

The original working manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous has been captured with state-of-the-art technology, utilizing a Sinar AG large format camera back, and saved as tiff images at 300 dpi resolution. For preservation of the manuscript, each page was treated with an alkaline material to aid in preventing deterioration of the paper. The pages were then placed inside separate sleeves made of polyester film. Finally, the sleeves were encapsulated, in which all air was pressed out of them, making each sleeve perfectly flat.

The annotations that appear throughout the manuscript have been conserved in their original state without artificial means to wash away imperfections in the inks. However, the inks were found to be water-sensitive and not conducive to treatment for purposes of maximum preservation. The color of the pages vary slightly due to the natural aging of the paper used to compose the document, among other possible factors. To further preserve the integrity of the pages, no color enhancement was attempted in preparing this manuscript for printing. Consequently, the result is a remarkable visual display that achieves our primary intention: to as closely as possible give readers the experience of viewing the actual document.

In homage to my grandmother, who often cited the famous line

from the Sermon on the Mount, Dont hide your light under a bushel,

I, the current owner of the manuscript, happily, proudly, and humbly

make this original working manuscript edition of the Big Book

accessible to the public for the first time.

CONTENTS

Presented herein, printed from a high-definition scan, is the original working manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous, known to people in Twelve Step programs worldwide as the Big Book. We are grateful to the owner of the manuscript for allowing Hazelden to make this seminal work available to readers for the first time.

Following this preface you will find two essays that introduce and illuminate the manuscript from two different but complementary perspectives. The first essay, Historical Context and Suggested Framework for Reading the Working Manuscript, was written by a Big Book historian commissioned by the publisher. The second essay, The Big Book Revealed, was written by a group of AA historians commissioned by the owner of the manuscript. They described the writing of their essay as follows:

This essay represents the wisdom and perspectives of many different AA historians and enthusiasts, as well as the finishing touches of readers, reviewers, and friends. It is, in fact, much the same sort of collaboration that the original Big Book represents: an act of good fellowship rather than an attempt to deliver the final word. We trust that what is presented here will become part of the continuing effort to uncover, debate, expand, and correct the history and origins of AA. The claims, points of view, and facts here represent our best collective effort to accurately put the origins of the Big Book in perspective, and will surely benefit from the further knowledge, opinions, and research of our readers.

After the presentation of the manuscript you will find three contributions, which are meant to provide further historical context for appreciating the manuscript:

An annotated listing of the edits made to the manuscript gathered under five thematic topics provided by a lecturer and teacher on the Twelve Steps, with additional listings provided by Hazelden editorial staff

A transcript of Bill Wilsons speech on the origins of the Big Book given at the Texas State AA Convention in 1954

A short publishing history of the Big Book by the AA historians who wrote the second essay, The Big Book Revealed

We offer these essays and other materials, not as the exhaustive or authoritative final word on this remarkable document, but as guideposts to help readers unlock their own individual interpretations and insights as they watch the text evolve before their eyes, and with hopes that the ideas revealed may come alive in their own hearts and minds.

The writers and contributors of the materials in this book (except for Bill Wilsons speech) are currently members of AA and have chosen to remain anonymous.

The Editor

T his book presents a wonderful opportunity for anyone interested in the history of the book Alcoholics Anonymous. What you hold in your hands is a rare and 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 AAs program of recovery to the world. In mid-February of that year, the members of Alcoholics Anonymous printed up multilith copies of their proposed book on how to recover from alcoholism. (Multilith is an offset printing process that was used at that time for small print runs.) These copies were distributed to AA members and to doctors and ministers for their comments and suggestions for changes. As those suggestions came in, they were all entered in one single multilith copythe one reproduced in this book.