You will find the First Edition,
book manuscripts and foreign language translations at
http://www.bigbooks.org
SINCE the original Foreword to this book was
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experience, following a meeting with an alcoholic
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could. It also indicated that strenuous work, one
alcoholic with another, was vital to permanent re- covery. 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 A.A. number three. He never had another drink. This work at Akron continued through the summer of 1935. There were many failures, but there was an occasional heart- ening success. When the broker returned to New York in the fall of 1935, the first A.A. group had actually been formed, though no one realized it at the time. By late 1937, the number of members having sub- stantial sobriety time behind them was sufficient to convince the membership that a new light had entered the dark world of the alcoholic. A second small group had promptly taken shape at New York. And besides, there were scattered alco- holics who had picked up the basic ideas in Akron or New York and were trying to form A.A. groups in other cities. It was now time, the struggling groups thought, to place their message and unique experience before the world. This determination bore fruit in the spring of 1939 by the publication of this volume. The member- ship had then reached about 100 men and women. The fledging society, which had been nameless, now began to be called Alcoholics Anonymous, from the title of its own book. The flying-blind period ended and A.A. entered a new phase of its pioneering time. With the appearance of the new book a great deal began to happen. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, the |
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noted clergyman, reviewed it with approval. In the
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prestige? Would there be schisms which would split
A.A. apart? Soon A.A. was beset by these very prob- lems on every side and in every group. But out of this frightening and at first disrupting experience the con- viction grew that A.A.'s had to hang together or die separately. We had to unify our Fellowship or pass off the scene. As we discovered the principles by which the indi- vidual alcoholic could live, so we had to evolve prin- ciples by which the A.A. groups and A.A. as a whole could survive and function effectively. It was thought that no alcoholic man or woman could be excluded from our Society; that our leaders might serve but never govern; that each group was to be autonomous and there was to be no professional class of therapy. There were to be no fees or dues; our expenses were to be met by our own voluntary contributions. There was to be the least possible organization, even in our service centers. Our public relations were to be based upon attraction rather than promotion. It was decided that all members ought to be anonymous at the level of press, radio, TV and films. And in no circumstances should we give endorsements, make alliances, or enter public controversies. This was the substance of A.A.'s Twelve Traditions, which are stated in full on page 564 of this book. Though none of these principles had the force of rules or laws, they had become so widely accepted by 1950 that they were confirmed by our first International Conference held at Cleveland. Today the remarkable unity of A.A. is one of the greatest assets that our Society has. While the internal difficulties of our adolescent |
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period were being ironed out, public acceptance of
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total problem of several million actual and potential
alcoholics in the world, we have made only a scratch. In all probability, we shall never be able to touch more than a fair fraction of the alcohol problem in all its ramifications. Upon therapy for the alcoholic himself, we surely have no monopoly. Yet it is our great hope that all those who have as yet found no answer may begin to find one in the pages of this book and will presently join us on the highroad to a new freedom. |