Today, there are over two million members of Alcoholics Anonymous. It's a life-saving fellowship. But who started it, and when? Most people know about the co-founders, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, who met in 1935 and formally launched AA. But who are the other "key players" in the history of AA? Well, there's Dr. William Silkworth, Bill's doctor at Towns Hospital. And Marty Mann, one of the first women in AA, and the founder of the National Council on Alcoholism. And Clarence Snyder, who started the first AA meeting in Cleveland. And many more fascinating men and women. Key Players in AA History by bob k not only tells us about these people, but in the process also provides a fresh understanding of the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. The book is well researched and a true pleasure to read. As Ernie Kurtz and Bill White put it in the Foreword: "The profiles crafted by bob k are drawn from multiple sources and presented in an engaging manner accessible to all those interested in the history of AA. So let the stories begin."

A 75th anniversary e-book version of the most important and practical self-help book ever written, Alcoholics Anonymous. Here is a special deluxe edition of a book that has changed millions of lives and launched the modern recovery movement: Alcoholics Anonymous. This edition not only reproduces the original 1939 text of Alcoholics Anonymous, but as a special bonus features the complete 1941 Saturday Evening Post article “Alcoholics Anonymous” by journalist Jack Alexander, which, at the time, did as much as the book itself to introduce millions of seekers to AA’s program. Alcoholics Anonymous has touched and transformed myriad lives, and finally appears in a volume that honors its posterity and impact.

The definitive history of writing and producing the"Big Book" of Alcoholics Anonymous, told through extensive access to the group's archives. Alcoholics Anonymous is arguably the most significant self-help book published in the twentieth century. Released in 1939, the “Big Book,” as it’s commonly known, has sold an estimated 37 million copies, been translated into seventy languages, and spawned numerous recovery communities around the world while remaining a vibrant plan for recovery from addiction in all its forms for millions of people. While there are many books about A.A. history, most rely on anecdotal stories told well after the fact by Bill Wilson and other early members—accounts that have proved to be woefully inaccurate at times. Writing the Big Book brings exhaustive research, academic discipline, and informed insight to the subject not seen since Ernest Kurtz’s Not-God, published forty years ago. Focusing primarily on the eighteen months from October 1937, when a book was first proposed, and April 1939 when Alcoholics Anonymous was published, Schaberg’s history is based on eleven years of research into the wealth of 1930s documents currently preserved in several A.A. archives. Woven together into an exciting narrative, these real-time documents tell an almost week-by-week story of how the book was created, providing more than a few unexpected turns and surprising departures from the hallowed stories that have been so widely circulated about early A.A. history. Fast-paced, engaging, and contrary, Writing the Big Book presents a vivid picture of how early A.A. operated and grew and reveals many previously unreported details about the colorful cast of characters who were responsible for making that group so successful.

Jim Burwell The Early History of Alcoholics AnonymousOne of the first longtime sober members of AA talks about the people, events and the development of ideas and practices that created AA Ebby, Bill Wilson and the Oxford Group Hank Parkhurst, Ruth Hock and the Writing of the Big Book How AA Got the name Alcoholics Anonymous Jack Alexander and the Saturday Evening Post Article The 12 Traditions The Circumstances that Led Up to AA Self-Governance by the General Service Conference

A fascinating account of the discovery and program of Alcoholics Anonymous, Not God contains anecdotes and excerpts from the diaries, correspondence, and occasional memoirs of AA's early figures. The most complete history of A.A. ever written, this book is a fast-moving and authoritative account of the discovery and development of the program and fellowship that we know today as Alcoholics Anonymous.

Dick B.'s second great discovery concerned the contents of the spiritual journal that Anne Ripley Smith had kept, shared, and used to teach Bill W., other AAs, and their families the underlying principles of A.A. The notebook lay unnoticed by historians and AAs alike even though it held the key to what early A.A. was really like--as related by the lady who was there as teacher, founder, and recorder. Dick B. is a writer, historian, Bible student, retired attorney, and active recovered member of A.A. He regards the Anne Smith discovery as perhaps the greatest of his historical finds and subjects in helping AAs to recover today.

The Book That Started It All Hardcover