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Alcoholics Anonymous History
with Dick B.
© 2012 Anonymous.
All rights reserved
The Most Complete References to
Alcoholics Anonymous History You Will Ever Find. And ongoing updates on http://www.alcoholicsanonymoushistory.com
This article and the website mentioned above intend to
focus readers on accurate, comprehensive Alcoholics Anonymous
History—particularly as it extends from the pre-A.A. Christian roots of the
1850’s to the period just after Bill Wilson published his First Edition of Alcoholics
Anonymous in 1939. It will lay out the history in various chunks that can
be examined and studied as time permits and that should prove useful to the
recovery community.
[The Preliminary Draft was posted on November 4, 2011; and
more and more specifics emerge with each ensuing year. A good example of
ongoing efforts can be found in our “Stick with the Winners” Series. The
first item is Stick with the Winners
How to Conduct More Effective 12-Step Recovery Meetings Using
Conference-Approved Literature: A Dick B. Guide for Christian Leaders and
Workers in the Recovery Arena, by Dick B. and Ken B., Available at this
time for a downloaded copy for only $9.95 on www.ChristianRecoveryCoalition.com.
A complement to this unusual and much needed guide has just been made
available for the additional low price of only $29.95. This video-audio presentation
of our history consists of 29 Videos which lay out in brief spurts the many
aspects of the early, old school, A.A. Fellowship and its applicability today.
Access all 29 videos for $29.95
via our website, www.ChristianRecoveryRadio.com.
And the end product of these two low-priced, comprehensive history renditions
will enable individuals, groups of friends, meetings, groups, seminars,
conferences, fellowships, churches and clergy, physicians and therapists,
social workers and public probation and parole and court sources, counselors,
interventionists, chaplains, treatment
program directors, prison and homeless outreach programs—any and all
of them, and others—to have at their finger tips a real, accurate, up-to-date
presentation of A.A. history, of the growing Christian Recovery Movement, and
of the way to apply old school A.A. to recovery efforts today.]
[This article is still rough around the edges as far as
margins, and full citations are concerned. It was revised in May of 2012 in preparation of a Southern
California Conference and is in need of further editorial and copy editing
work. But we believe it is important to get it out for all to see and utilize
at this particular point in time.]
Let’s Begin with
Alcoholics Anonymous General Services Conference-Approved Literature
I began my own search for Alcoholics Anonymous History by
reading all the available, accurate, relevant literature published by A.A.
itself. I still get grounded there and recommend looking at A.A. literature
first—instead of speculating on what A.A. is or isn’t. Once that is done, the
reader can fill in the holes, straighten out the distortions, and find out
what most in the recovery community have simply not heard or seen or read.
And the recommended books, in the order of the
publication, are:
Next, Look at
Reliable Alcoholics Anonymous History Books and Other Literature that Can Be
Helpful
Piece by piece, manuscript by manuscript, research trip by
research trip, archive by archive, library by library, interview by
interview, Alcoholics Anonymous History—in its full form, and in a form that
is comprehensive, accurate, and able to be used and applied in recovery
today—emerged from and is reported in the following Alcoholics Anonymous
History literature:
Publications,
2011.
Wally P., But for the Grace
of God, 1995, 30-46.
A Guide to the Twelve Steps
of Alcoholics Anonymous
A Manual for Alcoholics
Anonymous
Second Reader for Alcoholics
Anonymous
Spiritual Milestones in
Alcoholics Anonymous
Bill W.: My
First 40 Years
Chapter 1
“Bill’s Story,” Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., 2001, 1-16.
The many
manuscripts by Bill that I found at Stepping Stones, most of which are
discussed in Dick B., Turning Point: A History of Early A.A.’s
Spiritual
Roots and
Successes,1997.
Dick B., The Conversion of
Bill W., 2006.
Susan Cheever, My Name is
Bill W., 2004.
Francis Hartigan, Bill W., A
Biography. . . , 2000.
Matthew Raphael, Bill W. and
Mr. Wilson, 2000.
Tom White, Bill W.: A
Different Kind of Hero, 2003.
Nan Robertson, Getting Better
Inside Alcoholics Anonymous, 1988.
Robert Thomsen, Bill W., 1975
RHS, 1951.
The Co-Founders of Alcoholics
Anonymous: Biographical Sketches, P-53.
“Doctor Bob’s Nightmare,” Alcoholics
Anonymous, 4th ed., 171-181.
DR. BOB and the Good
Oldtimers, 1980.
Dick B. and Ken B.,
The Dick B.
Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., 2010.
Dr. Bob of
Alcoholics Anonymous,
Dick B.,
The Akron
Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous, 1998.
Dr. Bob and
His Library, 1998.
“Alcoholics Anonymous and Dr.
Bob,” http://mauihistorian.blogspot.com/
“16 Specific
Practices Associated with the Original Akron A.A. "Christian
Fellowship" Program,” http://internationalchristianrecoverycoaliti.blogspot.com
“Honest With Yourself, Pray. Alcoholics Anonymous Advise,” The
Tidings,
Page 17,
Friday, March 26, 1948.
D. J. Defoe,
"I Saw Religion Remake a Drunkard" in Your Faith (September
1939), 84-88. (Your Faith is
"a McFadden Publication")--Dr. Bob is called "Dr. X" in
this article. http://www.silkworth.net/aahistory/drbob/drbob_interview_fm_0939.html
Dick B. and Ken
B., The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., 2010.
“Alcoholics
Anonymous Number Three,” Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed.,
182-
192
“Pass It On,”
356-357.
“Bill Dotson:
A.A Number Three’s Recovery by the Power of God”
http://MauiHistorian.Blogspot.com
“Bill Dotson –
AA’s Number Three”
http://silkworth.net/aahistory/print/bdotson2.html
“Bill Dotson: A.A. Number 3”
http://www.barefootsworld.net/aabilld-aa3.html
Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th
ed., 2001,
[Rowland had been told by Dr.
Carl Jung that he had the mind of a chronic alcoholic but could possibly be
cured by a conversion. Rowland returned to America, became associated with
the Oxford Group, studied with Rev. Sam Shoemaker, and became active in
Shoemaker’s Calvary Church. Rowland had been impressed by the simplicity of
the early Christian teachings as advocated by the Oxford Group. Rowland made
a decision for Jesus Christ. Rowland and two other Oxford Group friends
(Cebra Graves and Shep Cornell) had decided to witness to Ebby Thacher and
told Ebby many Oxford Group principles and practices. Ebby, an old drinking
friend of Bill Wilson’s who had become a “real alcoholic” recalled that two
of Rowland’s Oxford Group friends(an old friend of Bill Wilson’s and a “real
alcoholic”) had told Ebby “things they had gotten out of the Oxford Group
based on the life of Christ, biblical times.” Ebby said: “It was what I had
been taught as a child and what I inwardly believed, but had lain aside” The
men had suggested that Ebby call on God and try prayer. Rowland and the two
others lodged Ebby in Shoemaker’s Calvary Mission. Occasionally, a religious
writer—either disdainful of, or unfamiliar with, A.A. facts and origins will
say: “Alcoholics Anonymous does not use the words sin or conversion”
See Linda Mercadante, Victims & Sinners, 1996, 70. Or, as she
does on 91: :God does not ask any more than simple acknowledgement of divine
existence.” The reader should look at A.A.’s Third Step prayer—“May I do Thy
will always” and A.A.’s Seventh Step prayer—“Grant me strength, as I go out
from here, to do your bidding. Amen.” Then spend a moment with Exodus 15:26,
Exodus 20:1-17—the Ten Commandments; Matthew 22:36-40—the two Great
Commandments; and James 2:8-11; and read all of Hebrews 11:6 ]
T. Willard Hunter, ‘IT STARTED
RIGHT THERE,” 2006
Bill C. and Jay S., Kitchen Table
A.A. Sponsorship Workshop, Carlsbad, 2007
Jay Stinnett, “Why Our Lives Were
Saved,” A.A. Spiritual History Workshop,
Reykjovik, Iceland, March 11,
2007.
“Pass It On,” 1984.
Mel B., Ebby: The Man Who
Sponsored Bill W., 1998.
Dick B., The Conversion of
Bill W.
Bill W. My
First 40 Years
Alcoholics
Anonymous Comes of Age
[Silkworth’s
name itself may not be well known to most AAs. But they certainly know of the
“Doctor’s Opinion” written by Silkworth as an introduction to their Big Book.
And they probably have grasped the fact that Silkworth established in Bill
Wilson’ thinking that alcoholism was a disease—an allergy of the body kicked
into gear by an obsession of the mind. But, as Silkworth’s biographer
observed after he had researched Silkworth’s life and papers, Silkworth has
not been given credit for the role he played in convincing Bill and others
that they could be cured of their alcoholism by the “Great Physician,” Jesus
Christ. And that solution—long since tossed aside before the Big Book was
published--became the foundation of Bill’s conviction that “conversion” was
the answer to alcoholism and that it was manifested by a “spiritual
experience.” “Divine Aid,” Bill was still calling it in his address at the
Shrine Auditorium in 1948 with Dr. Bob on the stage with him as well. The
information about the Great Physician and cure was conveyed to Bill on his
third hospitalization when he was given a virtual death sentence promise if
Bill did not quit drinking immediately. The specifics of Silkworth’s advice
on alcoholism was confirmed by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale.]
Dale Mitchel, Silkworth: The
Little Doctor Who Loved Drunks
Dick B., The Conversion of
Bill W.
Dick B. and Ken B., The
Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., 2010
Bill W., My First 40 Years, 2001
Norman Vincent Peale, The
Positive Power of Jesus Christ
[While Ebby was in Calvary
Mission, he went to the altar and made a decision for Jesus Christ. He then
visited Bill as he himself had been visited by Rowland Hazard, Cebra Graves,
and Shep Cornell. Ebby told Bill he had “found religion,” and that he had
tried prayer—something he specifically recommended to Bill Wilson. Bill
specifically concluded that Ebby had been “reborn.” But taking no chances,
Bill went to Shoemaker’s Calvary Church, listened to Ebby’s testimony, and
then decided that if the Great Physician had helped Ebby, he (Bill) could
probably receive the same help. Armed with Silkworth’s advice and Ebby’s
eye-witness testimony, Bill went to Calvary Mission himself. He went to the
altar. He made his own decision for Jesus Christ. He quickly wrote, “For
sure, I had been born again.” And then, still drunk and still despondent,
Bill made his way to Towns Hospital where he decided to call on the Great Physician
and had the experience—which Silkworth called a conversion experience—and
sensed the presence of God in his room. And never drank again.]
T. Willard Hunter, “IT
STARTED RIGHT THERE.” 2006
Bill W., My First 40 Years,
Dale Mitchel, Silkworth: The
Little Doctor Who Loved Drunks.
Mel B. Ebby: The Man Who
Sponsored Bill W., 1998
“Pass It On.”
Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of
Age
Richard M. Dubiel, The Road to
Fellowship, 2004. [Rowland Hazard] “must have
had some sort of influence on
early A.A.’s who knew about him, whether at first or second hand. . . it is
clear that behind Ebby Thatcher [sic], the messenger who brought the message
of salvation to Bill Wilson in the kitchen of Bill’s apartment in November
1934, lay the figure of Rowland Hazard III, the mysterious messenger behind
the messenger.” 79-80.
Dick B., The Conversion of
Bill W
Dick B. and Ken
B., The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed..
Dick B., Anne Smith’s
Journal, 1933-1939, 3rd ed., 1998
Dick B., The Akron Genesis of
Alcoholics Anonymous, 2d ed., 1998
Bob Smith and Sue Smith Windows,
Children of the Healer, 1992
Charlotte Hunter, Billye Jones,
Joan Zieger, Women Pioneers in 12 Step
Recovery, 1999
Lois Remembers, 1979.
William Borchert, When Love
is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story
Dick B., The Akron Genesis of
Alcoholics Anonymous, 2d ed.
Garth Lean, Frank Buchman: A
Life, 1985
Frank Buchman, Remaking the
World, 1961
H. W. “Bunny” Austin, Frank
Buchman as I Knew Him, 1975
Peter Howard,
That Man Frank Buchman, 1946
The World Rebuilt: The true
story of Frank Buchman. . . , 1951
Frank Buchman’s Secret, 1961
R.C. Mowat, The Message of Frank
Buchman, n.d.
T. Willard Hunter, World
Changing Through Life Changing, 1977
Alan Thornhill, The
Significance of the Life of Frank Buchman, 1952
Dick B.,
New Light on
Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A., 2d ed.
Good
Morning!: Quiet Time, Morning Watch, Meditation, and Early A.A.
Irving Harris,
The Breeze of the Spirit, 1978.
“S.M. S.—Man of God for Our
Time,” Faith at Work, 1964.
Norman Vincent Peale, “The
Unforgettable Sam Shoemaker,” Faith at Work,
1964.
Louis W. Pitt, “New Life, New Reality: A Brief Picture of S.M.S.’s
Influence,
Faith at
Work, 1950
Sherwood S. Day,
“Always Ready, S.M.S. as a Friend, Calvary Evangel, 1950.
Helen Smith Shoemaker, I Stand by the Door, 1967
Bill Wilson, “I Stand by the Door,” The A.A. Grapevine, 1967
“Ten of America’s Greatest Preachers,” Newsweek, 1955,
“Calvary Mission, “ Pamphlet, NY Calvary Episcopal Church, n.d.
John Potter Cuyler, Jr., Calvary Church in Action, 1934.
Samuel M Shoemaker, Jr.
So I Stand
by the Door and Other Verses, Pittsburgh, Calvary
Rectory.1958
My Life
Work and My Will, Pamphlet, 1930
“A First
Century Christian Fellowship,” Churchman, 1928
Calvary Church
Yesterday and Today, 1936.
“How to
Find God,” The Calvary Evangel, 1957.
Get
Changed; Get Together; Get Going: A History of the Pittsburgh
Experiment,
n.d.
Three Clarence Snyder Sponsee
Old-timers and Their Wives, Comp & ed. by
Dick B., Our
A.A. Legacy to the Faith Community: A Twelve-Step Guide
For Those
Who Want to Believe, 2005
DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, 1980.
Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age
Clarence Snyder,
Going through the Steps, 2d ed., 1985
My Higher Power-The Light Bulb, 1985
Mitchell K., How It Worked: The Story of Clarence H Snyder and the
Early Days
of
Alcoholics Anonymous in Cleveland, 1997.
Dick B., That Amazing Grace, 1996.
[Though author Mary Darrah
endeavors to select an earlier date for the A.A.-Ignatia connection, it is
clear that Ignatia came on the A.A. scene about mid-August 1939. And her
contributions were with Dr. Bob at St. Thomas Hospital from that point on.
Her book makes clear that Father John C. Ford, S.J. had—like Father Dowling,
S.J.—had a real part in editing Bill Wilson’s Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions
and his Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age—both published in the
1950’s]
Mary Darrah, Sister Ignatia, 1992,
13, 25-26, 33-37.
DR. BOB and the Good
Oldtimers, 1980
[Though Dowling did not meet Bill
until the winter of 1940, he became a friend and sponsor to Bill, and edited
Bill Wilson’s Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age and Twelve Steps
and Twelve Traditions]
Robert Fitzgerald, S.J., The
Soul of Sponsorship, 1995. See 55-66, 89]
“Pass It On,”
1980, 240-243, 281-282, 354, 371, 387.
Movement, 1994
How to Study and
Apply the Historical Elements Today
Utilizing Early AA.’s
Spiritual Roots for Recovery Today, 2000.
By The Power
of God: A Guide to Early A.A. Groups & Forming Similar Groups
Today, 2000.
God and Alcoholism: Our Growing Opportunity in the 21st
Century, 2002
Cured!: Proven Help for Alcoholics and Addicts, 2d ed, 2006
Twelve Steps For You: Take the Twelve Steps with the Big Book, A.A.
History,
and the Good
Book at Your Side, 4th ed., 2005.
Now
to Alcoholics Anonymous History: Item by Item, on the Origins of A.A.
Introduction
to the Sources and Founding of Alcoholics Anonymous, 2007
Real Twelve Step Fellowship History: The Old
School A.A. You May Not Know,
2006
Making Known the Biblical History and
Roots of Alcoholics Anonymous, 3rd ed.
2006
The
First Nationwide Alcoholics Anonymous History Conference, 2d ed., 2006.
Turning
Point: A History of Early A.A.’s Spiritual Roots and Successes, 1997.
New Wine: The Spiritual Roots
of the Twelve Step Miracle, 1991
My Search for
Bill W., 2000.
Dick B., New Light on
Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A., 2d ed., 1999.
Bill W., I Stand by the Door,
The A.A. Grapevine, 1967.
Charles Taylor Knippel, Samuel
M. Shoemaker’s Theological Influence on
William G. Wilson’s Twelve
Step Spiritual Program of Recovery, 1987
Helen Smith Shoemaker, I
Stand by the Door: The Life of Sam Shoemaker,1967.
John Potter Cuyler, Jr., Calvary
Church in Action, 1934.
W. Irving
Harris, The Breeze of the Spirit, 1978.
Samuel M.
Shoemaker, Calvary Church Yesterday and Today, 1936,
Samuel M. Shoemaker, Realizing
Religion, 1923
Dick B., The Oxford Group
& Alcoholics Anonymous, Newton ed., 1998.
Frank N. D. Buchman, Remaking
the World, 1961.
Garth Lean,
Frank
Buchman: A Life, 1985.
Good God, It
Works, 1974.
James D. Newton,
Uncommon Friends, 1987.
Henry B. Wright,
The Will of God and a Man’s Life Work, 1909.
Howard A.
Walter, Soul Surgery, 1928.
Harold Begbie,
Life Changers, 1927.
Howard J.
Rose, The Quiet Time, 1937.
Cecil Rose, When
Man Listens, 1937.
Harry J.
Almond, Foundations for Faith, 1980.
Peter Howard, That
Man Frank Buchman, 1946.
Robert E.
Speer, The Principles of Jesus, 1902.
B. H.
Streeter, The God Who Speaks, 1930.
Sherwood
Sunderland Day, The Principles of the Group, n.d.
T. Willard
Hunter,
It Started
Right There, 2006.
World
Changing Through Life-Changing, 1977.
The Layman
with a Notebook, What is the Oxford Group? 1933.
Kenneth
Belden,
Meeting
Moral Re-Armament, 1979.
Beyond the
Satellites: Is God Speaking? Are We Listening, 1987.
[Temperance, Abstinence, and the
Widespread Concerns of Society: Bill Wilson had made such a fuss over the
“failures” of the Washingtonian Movement that it can be said that his A.A.
took no position on “liquor” issues. But the Washingtonian Movement was but a
speck on the temperance front. It lasted only a short time. It was dismissed
by many as not a religious movement, and it is fair to say that its emphasis
was on “pledges” and not on healing by God. Nonetheless, the backdrop of Dr.
Bob’s and Bill’s boyhood days was temperance—abstinence from drink—however
much people may have disagreed on what was really involved—religion,
morality, social problems. There are several pieces of literature that may or
may not be known by, or of interest to those who might just dismiss the whole
picture by saying, “We don’t want to be like the Washingtonians. They
failed.” But the failure occurred before the major influences on A.A.
background got under way.]
Harry S. Warner,
Rev. Francis W. McPeek, and E.M. Jellinek, “Lecture 19,
Philosophy of
the Temperance Movement” Alcohol, Science and Society,
As given at the Yale Summer
School of Alcohol Studies, 1945, 267-285; McPeek: “I don’t believe that
the temperance movement can be understood in any sense unless the framework
in which it developed is understood, and this framework is essentially
Christian.,” 279.
Rev. Roland H. Bainton, “Lecture 20, The Churches and Alcohol, Alcohol,
Science and
Society, 287-298
Rev. Francis W. McPeek, “Lecture 26 – The Role of Religious Bodies in
the
Trreatment of Inebriety in the
United States, Alcohol, Science and Society, 1945, 406-411.
Jared C. Lobdell, This Strange Illness: Alcoholism and Bill W.,
2004, 30-38.
William L White, Slaying the Dragon, 1998,
4-14.
Dick B. and Ken B., Dr. Bob
of Alcoholics Anonymous: His Excellent Training in the Good Book as a
Youngster in Vermont, 2008..
[The Town of St.
Johnsbury—Dr. Bob’s birthplace]
Edward Taylor
Fairbanks, The Town of St. Johnsbury, Vt; A Review
Of One
Hundred Twenty-Five Years to the Anniversary Pageant, 1912
Claire Dunne Johnson, “I See By the Paper,” 1987.
[The People, including the Fairbanks family and the Smith family]
Albert Nelson Marquis, Who’s Who in New England
Charles G. Ullery, Men of Vermont, 1894.
Hiram Carleton, Geneological and Family History of the State of
Vermont, Vol
I.
Lorenzo Sayles Fairbanks, Geneology of the Fairbanks Family… 1897
The “Fairbanks Papers” 1815-1889,.
William H. Jeffrey, Successful Vermonters, 1904.
[Congregationalism and North Congregational Church of St.Johnsbury]
John M. Comstock, The Congregational Churches of Vermont and Their
Ministry, 1762-1942. 1942.
John E. Nutting, Becoming the United Church of Christ in Vermont, 1995
History of North Congregational Church, 2007
Arthur Fairbanks Stone, North Congregational Church, St. Johnsbury,
Vermont,
1825-1942, 1942
[Young People’s Society of Christian Endeavor]
Francis E. Clark.
Memoirs of
Many Men in Many Lands, An Autobiography, 1922
Christian
Endeavor in All Lands, 1906
World Wide Endeavor: The Story of the Young People’s
Society of
Christian Endeavor and in All Lands, 1895.
Amos R. Wells, Expert
Endeavor, A Textbook of Christian Endeavor
Methods
and Principles, 1911.
John R. Clements, The Francis E.
Clark Year Book: A Collection of Living
Paragraphs From Addresses,
Books, and Magazine Articles by the Founder of the Young People’s Society of
Christian Endeavor, 1904.
John Franklin Cowan, New Life in the Old Prayer Meeting, 1906.
[St. Johnsbury Academy]
Arthur
Fairbanks et. al. [including Dr. Bob’s mother], An Historical
Sketch of
St. Johnsbury Academy 1842-1922
Charles
Edward Russell, Bare Hands and Stone Walls, 1933
Richard
Beck, A Proud Tradition A Bright Future, 1992
Robert
Miraldi, The Pen Is Mightier: The Muckraking Life of Charles
Edward
Russell, 2003.
The
Academy Student (1897), (1898)
[Young Men’s Christian Association]
Year Book of
the Young Men’s Christian Association of North America,
1896
C. Howard Hopkins, John
R. Mott, 1865-1955.
Laurence
L. Doggett, History of the Young Men’s Christian Association
Richard
C. Morse, History of the North American Young Men’s Christian Associations, 1919
Sherwood
Eddy, A Century with Youth, 1884-1944, 1944
[Salvation Army]
[In Lecture 26,
cited below, Rev. McPeek states: “Much work
was done in the city missions
and particularly by the Salvation Army. . . . Generally speaking. The
Salvationists have capitalized on the same techniques that have made other
reform programs work: (1) Insistence on total abstinence. (2) reliance upon
God. (3) the provision of new friendships among those who understand. (4) the
opportunity to work with those who suffer from the same difficulty. (5)
unruffled patience and consistent faith in the ability of the individual and
the power of God to accomplish the desired ends.” 414-415]
William Booth, In Darkest
England and the Way Out, 1890,
Harold
Begbie, The Life of General William Booth: The Founder of the Salvation Army (Vol I and II), NY:
MacMillan, 1920.
Twice Born Men, 1909
Rev.
Francis W. McPeek, “Lecture 26 - The Role of Religious Bodies in
the Treatment
of Inebriety in the United States,” Alcohol, Science and Society, 1945,
403-418.
Howard
Clinebell, Understanding and Counseling Persons with Alcohol,
Drug, and
Behavioral Addictions, 1998, 184-194.
Dick B., The Conversion of
Bill W.
[The conversion that cured Bill
Wilson’s grandfather Willie of alcoholism]
Francis Hartigan, Bill W.: A
Biography…, 10-11
Robert Thomsen, Bill W., 14
Bill W., My First 40 Years, 6
Susan Cheever, My Name is
Bill, 17.
[The Evangelists]
Allen Folger, Twenty-Five Years as an Evangelist, 1906
Bob Holman, F. B. Meyer: “If I Had a Hundred Lives…,” 2007
Edgar J. Goodspeed, The Wonderful Career of Moody and Sankey in
Great
Britain and America, 1876.
Elmer Towns and Douglas Porter, The Ten Greatest Revivals Ever, 2000
J. Wilbur Chapman, Life and Work of Dwight L. Moody
Mark O. Guldseth, Streams, 1982.
[East Dorset Congregational Church]
Dick B. and Ken
B., The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed,
Dick B., The
Conversion of Bill W., 7-10, 27-28, 72-73
Susan
Cheever, My Name is Bill W., 4, 44
Francis
Hartigan, Bill W., 175
Robert Thomsen,
Bill W., 15, 30-9. 200
[Bible study-in East Dorset and in a 4 year Bible study course at Burr
and Burton]
Dick B.
and Ken B., The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed.
Susan
Cheever, My Name is Bill, 37-38, 47-48.
Robert
Thomsen, Bill W., 30-39, 200.
[Christian Revivals and Conversion Meetings Bill attended]
Bill Pittman, AA
The Way It Began, 79
Francis
Hartigan, Bill W., 10-11, 53, 58, 59
Matthew
Raphael, Bill W., 77
Susan
Cheever, My Name is Bill, 44-45,
Mel B., New
Wine, 127-28
[Gospel Rescue Missions]
D. Samuel
Hopkins Hadley, Down in Water Street: A Story of Sixteen
Years Life and Work in Water
Street Mission: A Sequel to the Life of Jerry McAuley, n.d.
J. Wilbur Chapman,
S.H. Hadley of Water Street, 1906.
“Pass It
On,”
William
James. The Varieties of Religious Experience, 1990, 188-9, 146
John
Potter Cuyler, Jr., Calvary Church in Action
Howard
Clinebell, Understanding and Counseling, 172-193
[Burr and Burton Academy and the Manchester Congregational Church]
Dick B.
and Ken B., The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide
Bill W.: My
First Forty Years
Frederica
Templeton, The Castle in the Pasture: Portrait of Burr and
Burton
Academy, 2005,, 25, 42. 44, 56, 67
[Young Men’s Christian Association-Bill as President, girl friend as
YWCA
President]
Bill W., My
First Forty Years, 29
Robert
Thomsen, Bill W., 57
Frederica
Templeton, The Castle in the Pasture, 78-79, 69
[Bill’s return to Jesus Christ,
the “Great Physician,” Who can cure alcoholics].
Dick B., Turning Point, 99-100.
The Conversion of Bill W., 47,
94,
A New Way In: Telling the
Truth, 61-66.
Norman Vincent Peale, The Positive Power of Jesus Christ. 1980.
Dale Mitchel, Silkworth, The Little Doctor Who Loved Drunks
Alcoholics Anonymous
Comes of Age, 60-63.
Mel B., Ebby: The Man Who Sponsored Bill W.
New Wine:
The Spiritual Roots of the Twelve Step Miracle
“Lois Remembers: Searcy, Ebby, Bill & Early Days”: Recorded in
Dallas
Texas, June 29, 1973.
T. Willard Hunter, It Started Right There
Bill W., My First Forty
Years
W. Irving Harris, The Breeze of the Spirit
“Pass It On”
William James, The
Varieties of Religious Experience
[Bill Wilson’s first
unsuccessful attempts for six months to carry a message]
William
Borchert, When Love is Not Enough
Alcoholics
Anonymous, 4th ed., 191.
Lois Remembers, 94-95
Alcoholics
Anonymous Comes of Age, 64-65
The Co-Founders
of Alcoholics Anonymous, 9-10, 26.
Alcoholics
Anonymous History – The Fellowship Begins
Bill W.:
[As a youngster in Vermont, Bill
had repeatedly heard the story of how his alcoholic grandfather Willie had
been converted to God through Jesus Christ on a mountaintop next to Bill’s
village. Willie was saved, said so, and never touched a drop during the
remaining years of his life. And Bill was no stranger to revivals, conversion
meetings, temperance meetings, and salvation teachings—the latter in his
church and Sunday school]
(1) Dr. Carl Jung had told
Rowland Hazard that he had the mind of a chronic alcoholic and that a
conversion experience might heal him (2) Rowland Hazard made a decision for
Jesus Christ and also joined the Oxford Group. (3) Rowland and two other
Oxford Group friends told Bill Wilson’s long-time drinking friend Ebby
Thacher the solution that Jung had proffered. Rowland taught him about the
efficacy of prayer. He informed Ebby of a number of the Oxford Group’s
Christian principals. Then Ebby was lodged in Calvary Rescue Mission in New
York. (4) Meanwhile, Bill Wilson had made his third visit to Towns Hospital.
Dr. William D. Silkworth, Bill’s psychiatrist, had a long talk. Silkworth had
given Bill a virtual death sentence contingent upon his continuing to drink.
Dr. Silkworth, a devout Christian and a long-time parishioner of Sam
Shoemaker’s Calvary Church, told Bill Wilson that the “Great Physician” Jesus
Christ could cure Bill. (5) In this same period, Ebby Thacher had made a
decision for Jesus Christ at Calvary Mission, decided to witness to Bill,
visited Bill, and told Bill what had happened at the Mission. (6) Bill
decided to check out Ebby’s story and went to hear him give testimony at
Calvary Church. (7) Bill decided that if the Great Physician had helped Ebby
recover, he might help Bill. (8) Bill W. accepted Jesus Christ at Calvary
Mission, wrote in his autobiography that “For sure I had been born again.”
(9) Bill continued to drink, became severely depressed, and thought, If there
be a Great Physician, I had better call on him. (10) Bill staggered on to
Towns Hospital drunk and very depressed and was hospitalized. (11) He said to
himself, “I’ll do anything, anything at all. If there be a Great Physician,
I’ll call on him.” (12) He cried out, “If there be a God let him show
himself.” (13) He said the effect was, instant, electric. Suddenly my room
blazed with an indescribably white light. (14) He continued: Then, seen in
the mind’s eye, there was a mountain. I stood upon its summit where a great
wind blew. A wind, not of air, but of spirit. In great, clean strength it
blew right through me. (15) The light and the ecstasy subsided. He became
more quiet. A great peace stole over him. (16) Then he became acutely
conscious of a presence which seemed like a “veritable sea of living spirit.”
(17) He thought, “This must be the great reality.” And in one account, he
said this was “the God of the Scriptures.” (18) He said, “I thanked my God
who had given me a glimpse of His absolute Self. (19) He said that faith had
suddenly appeared—no blind faith—but faith fortified by the consciousness of
the presence of God. (20) Briefly He stopped doubting God and said “this
great and sudden gift of grace has always been mine.” (21) He never drank
again. (22) But he did have his “hour of doubt.” (23) Dr. Silkworth appeared
and sat by Bill’s bed. Bill told Silkworth what had happened. Bill asked:
“Doctor, is this real? Am I still perfectly sane?” (24) Sikworth assured him
that he was sane. He said “You have had some kind of conversion experience.”
(25) Ebby showed up at the hospital, agreed with Bill that he and Bill had a release
that was a gift, real. He handed Bill a copy of a book by Professor William
James. It was called “The Varieties of Religious Experience.” Bill he had
read it “all day.”(26) The James book was filled with studies and stories of
the cure of alcoholism at missions such as the one founded by Jerry McAuley
at 316 Water Street in 1872, and later (in 1882) at 104 West Thirty-second
Street, known as Cremorne Mission. In 1886, S.H. Hadley took charge of the
Water Street Mission. Hadley had been converted at Jerry McAuley’s Cremorne
Mission, and in the years of service in Water Street not less than
seventy-five thousand persons came to the mission for help. Hadley died in
1906. (27) Before his discharge from Towns Hospital in December of 1935,
Wilson had been inspired to help drunks everywhere. (28) On his discharge, he
raced feverishly to the streets, the missions, the hospitals, the Bowery, and
flea bag hotels. He went with a Bible under his arm and insisted that drunks
give their lives to God. (29) Bill’s story is briefly told as follows in the
Big Book: “Henrietta, the Lord has been so wonderful to me curing me of this
terrible disease that I just want to keep talking about it and telling
people.” (30) But in his first six months of witnessing, Bill was unable to
get a single person sober.]
Dr. Bob
[Dr. Bob was born in St. Johnsbury, Vermont when the entire
state was still swirling from the effect of “The Great Awakening of 1875 in
St. Johnsbury.” His parents were married when the events were taking place. They
taught Bob about salvation and the Word of God. He heard similar sermons and
teachings in the family’s North Congregational Church of St. Johnsbury.
Temperance was in the air. The Young Men’s Christian Association had been
active in bringing about the Great Awakening and was still very active during
Bob’s growing-up period. The great evangelists had inspired Vermont with
their talk of salvation, the Bible, and God’s healing power. The Salvation
Army was becoming well known for its outreach and resulting healing of
derelicts and drunks. So too were the rescue mission events involving Jerry
McAuley, Water Street Mission, and S.H. Hadley. The Young People’s Society of
Christian Endeavor, in which Dr. Bob was active, had laid out a program of
confession of Jesus Christ, conversions, Bible study meetings, prayer
meetings, Quiet Hour observances, and reading and speaking on Christian
literature. Their program, though not aimed at drunkards, was certainly
focused on bringing young people back to their churches. In his early
sobriety, Dr. Bob had turned back to church for himself and Sunday school for
his children. And the program of the early Akron A.A. Christian Fellowship
closely resembled the conversions which were so much a part of Bill’s life,
and the principles and practices of Christian Endeavor.]
[Dr. Bob’s road back to
sobriety could—like Bill Wilson’s—be said to have begun when he was at the
bottom of the heap in 1931. I learned little about him at that time. But I
researched an learned a lot about what happened in Akron in 1931. It revolved
around the Firestone family, and Harvey’s protégé Jim Newton—a young man from
Florida. When Jim arrived in Akron, he befriended Russell Firestone but found
that Russell had a serious drinking problem. Jim tried to help Russell by
Oxford Group techniques. But finally, the family decided to call in Rev. Sam
Shoemaker of New York—an Oxford Group leader of that time. They (Harvey,
Russell, Jim and Sam) boarded a train for a Bishop’s conference in
Denver—with Russell well supplied with liquor. But on the trip back, Sam
Shoemaker took Russell into a train compartment and led Russell to a new
birth in Christ. By the time the train arrived back in Akron, Russell was
healed, and his doctor felt it was a miracle. Russell and Jim then began
traveling together and witnessing to others about the Oxford Group’s
life-changing program. By 1933, the family was elated at Russell’s progress.
They invited Dr. Frank Buchman and a retinue of some 30 Oxford Group
activists to come to Akron, speak in the pulpits and public places, and
inform the press. I have personally seen the Akron newspapers of that early
1933 period; and they are alive with talk of Russell and his “miracle,” of
Jesus Christ, of the Bible, and of Christianity. And a large part of the town
turned out to hear Russell, Jim, Buchman, and others give testimony.]
[The wheels of sobriety began to
grind for Dr. Bob. His friend Henrietta Seiberling and his wife Anne attended
the 1933 functions. They were excited. They persuaded Dr. Bob to join a small
Oxford Group. And, though he continued to drink, Dr. Bob read all the Oxford
Group literature he could get his hands on. He studied the Bible extensively
once again. He prayed. And he enjoyed the people. But he concluded to
Henrietta that he just didn’t want to quit drinking and was a “wanna wanna”
guy. But Henrietta was undeterred. She convened a tiny group, including Bob.
They all engaged in life-changing stories. Dr. Bob joined in and confessed
that he was a “secret drinker.” Henrietta asked him if he wanted to pray for
his deliverance. And Bob joined the group on his knees on the rug at the T.
Henry Williams home, asking God for help. Help did not come at once. But a
seemingly miraculous phone call reached Henrietta from an unknown stranger
from New York. It was Bill Wilson saying that he was an Oxford Grouper, a rum
hound from New York, and needed to talk with a drunk. Henrietta was sure this
was an answer to the prayers and thought of Bill, “This is manna from
heaven.” She arranged a visit at her home between Bob and Bill. It lasted six
hours. Bob said he had heard it all before, but that Bill talked his
language—the story of a drunk. Bob said he picked up on the idea of “service”
which was something his religious endeavors had not gotten through to him.
And, after one last binge, Bob
quit forever while Bill Wilson was living with the Smiths in their home.
Bill Dotson (A.A. Number
Three)
[We have run across very little
concerning Bill Dotson, except as set forth in the biographical information
above. However, we know for sure that: (1) Dotson was an attorney in Akron.
(2) Dotson believed in God, went to church, taught Sunday school, and became
a Deacon in the church. (3) His alcoholism had progressed to the point that
he had been strapped to a hospital bed eight times in the preceding months.
(4) And when Dr. Bob inquired of a nurse whether there was a hospitalized
drunk who needed help, she told them she had a dandy—Bill Dotson. (5) Bill
and Bob visited Dotson, told him their stories, told him he needed to seek
God’s help, and that—upon being healed—he must go out and help others in like
situations. (6) Dotson did turn to God for help and was instantly cured. In
fact, he subscribed to Bill Wilson’s statement on page 191 of the Big Book that
“the Lord had cured” him and that he just wanted to keep talking about it and
telling people. He called the statement the “golden text of A.A.” for him and
for others. (7) And, when Bill and Bob had returned to the hospital, Dotson
had been relieved of his drinking problem, He left the hospital with his
wife. The date was July 4, 1935; and Bill Wilson proclaimed that as the
founding date for A.A.’s first group—Akron Number One. Dotson remained active
in A.A. and often led groups with a Bible in his lap, ready to help someone
who needed help.]
The
Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous (Pamphlet P-53)
Dick B.
and Ken B., The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed,,
2010.
Dick B.
and Ken B. “Introductory Foundations for Christian Recovery” Class
DR. BOB and the Good
Oldtimers
Dick B., The Akron Genesis of
Alcoholics Anonymous
Dick B., Turning Point: The
Spiritual History of Alcoholics Anonymous
Dick B., Henrietta B.
Seiberling: Ohio’s Lady with a Cause
Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of
Age, 66-72.
Dick B. and Ken B., The Dick
B. Christian Recovery Guide
Dick B., When Early AAs
Were Cured and Why
DR. BOB and the Good
Oldtimers
Sue Smith
Windows and Robert R. Smith, Children of the Healer, 1992
The Co-Founders of Alcoholics
Anonymous
DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers
Dick B.,
The Good
Book and The Big Book: A.A.’s Roots in the Bible
The Good
Book-Big Book Guidebook
The James
Club and the Original A.A. Program’s Absolute Essentials
Anne Smith’s
Journal 1933-1939
Why Early
A.A. Succeeded (A Bible Study Primer)
Cured:
Proven Help for Alcoholics and Addicts
The First
Nationwide Alcoholics Anonymous History Conference
DR. BOB and the Good
Oldtimers
Dick B., Good
Morning!: Quiet Time, Morning Watch, Meditation, and Early
A.A.
Howard Rose, The Quiet Time
Donald Carruthers, How to Find Reality in Your Morning Devotions, Penn
State
College, n.d.
Nora Smith Holm, The
Runner’s Bible
The Upper Room
Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest
E. Stanley Jones, Victorious Living
Dick B.,
The Golden
Text of A.A.
When Early
AAs Were Cured and Why
That Amazing
Grace
A New Way Out: New Path,
Familiar Road Signs, Our Creator’s Guidance
Mitchell K., How It Worked
Dick B. and Ken B., The Dick B.
Christian Recovery Guide
[Bible based,
Christ-centered, bringing the Creator’s Power and Cures Back into Focus. And
we believe the following are the ingredients common to most all successful
Christian efforts to bring deliverance to alcoholics: 1. The choice of
abstinence. 2. The choice of avoiding temptation. 3. The choice of entrusting
one’s life to the care, direction, and strength of the Creator. 4. The choice
of establishing a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. 5. The choice
of obeying His commandments and eliminating sinful conduct. 6. The choice of
growing in knowledge and fellowship with Him, His son, and His children
through Bible study, prayer, religious fellowship, worship, and witness. 7.
The choice of passing along to others with love and service the message that
will enable those others to help and be helped in the same manner.]
Dick B., A
New Way Out, 63-64.
[A.A. History – A.A. and First
Century Christianity. The Multiple First Century Christianity-A.A. Quotes
Among The Rockefeller People Who Investigated. Five of the Rockefeller
people involved with the Frank Amos report commented as follows on the First
Century Christianity nature of the Akron A.A.:
Frank Amos: As stated,
Rockefeller’s investigator Frank Amos had observed that the meetings of Akron
people had, in many respects, taken on the form of the meetings described in
the Gospels of the early Christians during the first century (Dr. Bob and
the Good Oldtimers, pp. 135-36)
Albert Scott: In
December, 1936. a meeting was held in John D. Rockefeller’s private board
room. Bill W., Dr. Bob, Dr. Silkworth, Dr. Leonard Strong, and some
alcoholics from New York and Akron met with Rockefeller’s associates Willard
Richardson, A. Leroy Chapman, Frank Amos, and Albert Scott. The meeting was
chaired by Albert Scott, chairman of the board of trustees of New York’s
Riverside Church. Each alcoholic was enjoined to tell his own personal story,
after which, the chairman Albert Scott exclaimed, “Why, this is first-century
Christianity. What can we do to help?” (Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age,
p. 148)
Nelson Rockefeller: In
February of 1940, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. had arranged a dinner for Bill and
the AAs. John D. had intended to attend, but was too ill to do so and sent
his son Nelson Rockefeller to host the dinner. As Bill’s wife Lois Wilson
records in her memoirs, “When Nelson finally got up to talk, there was a
great deal of expectancy. He told how impressed his father [John D., Jr..]
was with this unique movement, which resembled early Christianity.” (Lois
Remembers, pp. 128-29)
Willard Richardson and John
D. Rockefeller, Jr., himself: What they’d been hearing, he [Albert Scott]
said, was like first century Christianity, where one person carried the word
to the next. . . . Willard Richardson was in charge of all John D.
Jr.’s philanthropies. . . Willard Richardson added his approval to the report
and immediately passed it on to Mr. [John D.] Rockefeller. . .
Rockefeller was impressed. He saw the parallel with early Christianity and
along with this he spotted a combination of medicine and religion that
appealed to all his charitable inclinations (Robert Thomsen, Bill W.,
pp. 274-75).
The best
comparative material can be found in Acts 2:41-47:
“Then they that gladly received
his word were baptized: and the same day there were added [unto them] about
three thousand souls.
And they continued stedfastly in
the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in
prayers.
And fear came upon every soul:
and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
And all that
believed were together, and had all things common;
And sold their possessions and
goods, and parted them to all [men], as every man had need.
And they,
continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread f from
house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,
Praising God, and having favour
with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be
saved.
Not surprisingly, Dr. Bob,
co-founder of A.A. frequently called the early A.A. Akron program a
"Christian Fellowship"
Dick B. and Ken B., The Dick
B. Christian Recovery Guide, 3rd ed., 2010.
[DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers also comments on the November
1937 meeting between Bill W. and Dr. Bob which led to the decision that a
book about their cure for alcoholism would be needed.
In November of that year [i.e.,
1937], Bill Wilson went on a business trip that enabled him to make a
stopover in Akron. . . .
Bill's writings record the day he
sat in the living room with Doc, counting recoveries. "A hard core of
very grim, last-gasp cases had by then been sober a couple of years," he
said. "All told, we figured that upwards of 40 alcoholics were staying
bone dry
Up to then, prospects had come to
the founders from other cities. Now, the question was whether every alcoholic
had to come to Akron or New York to get sober. Was it possible to reach
distant alcoholics? Was it possible for the Fellowship to grow "rapidly
and soundly"?
This was when Bill began to think
. . . of writing a book of experiences that would carry the message of
recovery to other cities and other countries.
Let us now look at this
vitally-significant, November 1937 meeting in more detail.
In an October 1945 article in the
A.A. Grapevine titled "The Book Is Born," Bill referred to
his meeting with Dr. Bob in Akron in November 1937 as follows:
By the fall of 1937 we could
count what looked like forty recovered members. One of us had been sober
three years, another two and a half, and a fair number had a year or more
behind them. As all of us had been hopeless cases, this amount of time
elapsed began to be significant. The realization that we had "found
something" began to take hold of us. No longer were we a dubious
experiment. Alcoholics could stay sober. Great numbers, perhaps! While
some of us had always clung to this possibility, the dream now had real
substance. If forty alcoholics could recover, why not four hundred, four
thousand — even forty thousand. RHS: Co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous:
Our Beloved DR. BOB (NY: A.A. Grapevine, Inc., 1951), 8. The article from
which this quote is taken also occurs in The Language of the Heart and
is titled "Dr. Bob: A Tribute." This quote appears on page 359 of
that article.
In the quote above, Bill spoke of
having counted "what looked like forty recovered members." He also
speculated about possible, much larger numbers of alcoholics—"even forty
thousand"—recovering.
Bill W. spoke more clearly and at
greater length about his November 1937 meeting with Dr. Bob in Akron in his
tribute to Dr. Bob in the special memorial issue of The A.A. Grapevine
in January 1951 titled "RHS":
Meanwhile a small group had taken
shape in New York. The Akron meeting at T. Henry's home began to have a few
Cleveland visitors. At this juncture I spent a week visiting Dr. Bob. We
commenced to count noses. Out of hundreds of alcoholics, how many had stuck?
How many were sober? And for how long? In that fall of 1937 Bob and I counted
forty cases who had significant dry time — maybe sixty years for the whole
lot of them! Our eyes glistened. Enough time had elapsed on enough cases to
spell out something quite new, perhaps something great indeed. . . . A beacon
had been lighted. God had shown alcoholics how it might be passed from hand
to hand. Never shall I forget that great and humbling hour of realization,
shared with Dr. Bob.
But the new realization faced us
with a great problem, a momentous decision. It had taken nearly three years
to effect forty recoveries. The United States alone probably had a million
alcoholics. How were we to get the story to them?
Here again, Bill declares that he
and Dr. Bob "counted forty cases who had significant dry time" and
refers to "forty recoveries." And note that Bill credited God with
having shown them "how it might be passed from hand to hand." RHS:
Co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous: Our Beloved DR. BOB (NY: A.A.
Grapevine, Inc., 1951), 8. The article from which this quote is taken also
occurs in The Language of the Heart and is titled "Dr. Bob: A
Tribute." This quote appears on page 359 of that article.
Bill wrote about his November
1937 meeting with Dr. Bob in Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age:
. . . [T]his trip [in the fall of
1937] gave me a much needed chance to visit Dr. Bob in Akron. It was on a
November day in that year [of 1937] when Dr. Bob and I sat in his living
room, counting the noses of our recoveries. There had been failures galore,
but now we could see some startling successes too. A hard core of very grim,
last-gasp cases had by then been sober a couple of years, an unheard-of
development. There were twenty or more such people. All told we figured that
upwards of forty alcoholics were staying bone dry.
. . . [A] benign chain reaction,
one alcoholic carrying the good news to the next, had started outward from
Dr. Bob and me. Conceivably it could one day circle the whole world. What a
tremendous thing that realization was! At last we were sure. . . . We
actually wept for joy, and Bob and Anne and I bowed our heads in silent
prayer. Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, 76. See also: Debra Jay, No
More Letting Go: The Spirituality of Taking Action Against Alcoholism and
Drug Addiction (New York, NY: Bantam Books, 2006), 287-88.
Here again, we see Bill
commenting about the "upwards of forty alcoholics" who "were
staying bone dry," while speaking almost in the same breath about how
"it could one day circle the whole world."
The A.A. General Service
Conference-approved book "Pass It On" also discusses this
November 1937 meeting.
“Later in 1937, Bill . . . did
visit Bob and Anne in Akron. It was on this visit that the two men conducted
a "formal" review of their work of the past two years.
What they came to realize as a
result of that review was astounding: Bill may have been stretching things
when he declared that at least 20 cases had been sober a couple of years; but
by counting everybody who seemed to have found sobriety in New York and
Akron, they concluded that more than 40 alcoholics were staying dry as a
result of the program! "Pass It On": The Story of Bill Wilson
and How the A.A. Message Reached the World (New York, NY: Alcoholics
Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1984), 177-78.
Bill W. also spoke briefly about
this meeting with Dr. Bob—without mentioning numbers of recoveries—in his May
1955 article in the A.A. Grapevine titled "How AA's World
Services Grew, Part 1," in The Language of the Heart, 142.
See also:
Dick B., The Akron Genesis of
Alcoholics Anonymous, 224-25.
Bill W.'s wife Lois remarked on
the 40 in her memoirs:
The business depression returned
in 1937, and toward the end of the year Quaw and Foley had to let Bill go. He
went to Detroit and Cleveland looking for new job ideas and, of course,
stopped off at Akron on the way
He and Bob assessed the current
status of the movement. They were surprised to find that, although many of
those they had worked with had fallen by the way, forty members enjoyed an
average of two years' solid sobriety. This was flabbergasting, awe-inspiring.
They really had hit on a program for helping alcoholics. Now they saw it
could develop into something tremendous—if it was not diluted or garbled by
word of mouth. Lois Remembers: Memoirs of the Co-founder of Al-Anon and
Wife of the Co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (New York: Al-Anon Family
Group Headquarters, Inc., 1987), 107.
Here are some key comments about
this important tally of successes by other writers:
In November [of 1937] Bill had to
make a trip to the Midwest in connection with the brokerage job he was trying
to nail down. Although nothing came of his efforts concerning the job—another
depression had hit the country in the fall of '37—the trip gave him an
opportunity to visit Dr. Bob in Akron. Bill had been sober almost three
years, Bob two and a half, and this, they figured, should be ample time for
them to see where they were and even make some sort of informal progress
report.
There had been failures galore.
Literally hundreds of drunks had been approached by their two groups and some
had sobered up for a brief period but then slipped away. They were both
conscious of their failures as they settled down in Bob's living room and
began comparing notes. But as the afternoon wore on and they continued going
over lists, counting noses, they found themselves facing a staggering fact.
In all, in Ohio and in New York, they knew forty alcoholics who were sober
and were staying sober, and of this number at least twenty had been
completely dry for more than a year. Moreover, every single one of them had
been diagnosed a hopeless case.
As they sat, each with a paper in
hand, checking and rechecking the score, a strange thing happened; they both
fell silent. This was more than a game they were playing, more than a little
casual bookkeeping to be used for a report. There were forty names
representing forty men whose lives had been changed, who actually were alive
tonight because of what had started in this very room. The chain reaction
they had dreamed about—one alcoholic carrying the word to another—was a
reality. It had moved onward, outward from them. Robert Thomsen, Bill W.
(New York: Harper & Row, 1975), 266-67.
Although Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob
Smith had communicated through dozens of letters, sitting down together again
after almost two years turned out to be an astonishing experience. Whey they
compared notes in person, they realized that they had actually found
something that doctors and laymen had been searching for as long as anyone
could remember: a way to help alcoholics get sober that actually worked.
Between them they counted forty men who hadn't had a drink in more than a
year Susan Cheever, My Name Is Bill: Bill Wilson: His Life and the
Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous (New York: Washington Square Press,
2004), 147.
In November [of 1937], Bill . . .
was able to spend some time in Akron. . . .
. . . He and the Smiths decided
to take an inventory. Among those they had tried to help, the failures were
endless, and many of those who seemed sincerely willing to try their approach
were struggling. When they were done counting, though, they realized that
between Akron and New York there were now forty alcoholics staying sober, and
half of them had not had a drink for more than a year. Francis Hartigan, Bill
W.: A Biography of Alcoholics Anonymous Cofounder Bill Wilson (NY: St.
Martins Press, 2000), 101.]
Richard K., Early
A.A.—Separating Fact from Fiction: How Revisionists Have
Led Our History Astray, 2003
Richard K. New
Freedom: Reclaiming Alcoholics Anonymous, 2005
The one-page
list in the hand of Dr. Bob—now in the Rockefeller Archives
Dick B. and
Ken B., The Dick B. Christian Recovery Guide
Bill Wilson’s
Preparation for a New, Oxford Group-Oriented Program
[This story
begins with what Bill Wilson had learned from his extensive contacts with the
Oxford Group, its meetings, its house parties, its teams, and Oxford Group
leaders and activists such as Dr. Frank N.D. Buchman, Rev. Samuel M.
Shoemaker, Irving Harris and his wife, Rowland Hazard, Shep Cornell, Cebra
Graves, Garrett Stearly, Cleve Hicks, Victor Kitchen, Garth Lean, and others.
He learned Oxford Group ideas from Shoemaker, Rowland Hazard, Ebby Thacher,
and attendance at their meetings. Bill is mentioned personally in some of the
Shoemaker personal journals we have seen. He was given a major post in
bringing the president of the League of Nations to America. Bill left the
Oxford Group in August of 1937, but he soon returned to become a personal
friend and collaborator with Sam Shoemaker. Bill had gone to Akron to obtain
permission to write a book, and he received it—by a bare majority of those
voting. According to Bill, Shoemaker, and Irving Harris, Bill began working
with Shoemaker on the contents of the book. They were closeted in Shoemaker’s
book-lined study at Calvary House. Bill showed Shoemaker the first manuscript
of the book. And he actually asked Shoemaker to write the Twelve Steps though
Shoemaker declined. This charts the Big Book connections. And part of the
preparations for the book were the so-called six word-of-mouth ideas Bill
claimed were being used before the Big Book. Bill said there was no agreement
on the contents of the six, and their contents certainly differed.
Here are the
various ways Bill’s alleged six “steps” were phrased, for example, as to God:
1. “We prayed to God.”
See Dick B., The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics
Anonymous, 256-257; The Language of the Heart, 200;
William White, Slaying the Dragon, 132.
2. “We prayed to whatever God
we thought there was.” Dick B., The Akron
Genesis, 256; “Pass It On,” 197; Alcoholics Anonymous Comes
of Age. 160; Jared Lobdell, This Strange Illness, 242. .
3. We prayed to God as you
understand him.” Jared Lobdell, This Strange
Illness, 242;
Dick B., Turning Point, 100.
4. Bill Wilson also said his
“six steps” came from the Oxford Group; and Lois
Wilson
contended that the Oxford Group said: “Surrender your life to God.”
Lois
Remembers, 92; Dick B., The Akron Genesis, 257. But, acting on the
research and opinion of Oxford Group activist T. Willard Hunter, A.A.’s own publication
“Pass It On” concluded the Oxford Group had no such six steps or any
steps at all. “Pass It On,” 206, Footnote 2
5. From some source or for some
reason undocumented and seemingly false,
the
purported author of a Big Book personal story titled, “8. HE SOLD HIMSELF
SHORT,” (almost certainly Earl Treat of Chicago) was quoted with reference to
six steps plus several other ideas attributed to Dr. Bob as saying: “Dependence
and guidance from a Higher Power.” The story was added to the 1956
edition of Alcoholics Anonymous several years after Dr. Bob’s death.
And it is my opinion, based on extensive research of and writing about Dr.
Bob that the language on page 263 is language easily attributable to Bill
Wilson but not typical of the way Dr. Bob spoke of God as “Heavenly Father”
and “God” and not as some higher power. Examples of the questionable words
are: 1. “Complete deflation.” 2. “Dependence and guidance from a Higher
Power.” Dr. Bob had apparently asked a newcomer if he believed in “God”—not
“a god”—God!
6. In The Language of the
Heart. in an article dated July, 1953, Bill makes the
following
comments about his six word-of-mouth ideas: “. . . our growing groups at
Akron, New York, and Cleveland evolved the so-called word-of-mouth program of
our pioneering time. As we commenced to form a Society separate from the
Oxford Group, we began to state our principles something like this. . . .
Though these principles were advocated according to the whim or liking of
each of us, and though in Akron and Cleveland they still stuck by the O.G.
absolutes of honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love, this was the gist of
our message to incoming alcoholics up to 1939. . .,” 200. To see some of the
inconsistencies in Bill’s statements and dates, consider these points: (a)
Bill and Lois left the Oxford Group in August of 1937. (b) In 1938, Frank
Amos summarized the Akron program in seven points—practically none of which
paralleled Bill’s six. DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, 131. (c)
Clarence Snyder did not found the Cleveland groups until May of 1939, after
the Big Book’s April publishing date. (d) In his two major speeches in 1948.
Dr. Bob spoke about prayer and reading the Bible. He spoke favorably about
the Four Absolutes. He said nothing that indicated he had departed from his
adherence to the seven points summarized by Frank Amos in 1938
o For example, in referring to God, Bill spoke
of praying to God, praying to God as you understood Him, and praying to
whatever God you think there is. In one recital of the six points attributed
without documentation to Dr Bob (a recital that I believe Bill himself wrote)
the writer of the story uses and speaks typical Bill Wilson language—higher
power, deflation in depth, and other ideas that I have not seen in usage in
any other materials attributed to Bob and his Akron ideas.
o The first phase of Big Book preparation
itself took the form of two chapters that Bill wrote in reverse order to
those in the first two chapters of the Big Book. “Pass It On,’ 193. He
then began sending the chapters, one by one, to Dr. Bob in Akron for
approval. And the approval was forthcoming. Details are set forth in Dick B.,
The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous, 233-239;
o At some point, the materials were assembled
into what has been called the “multi-lith.” This was sent out to somewhere
between 200 and 400 people for their comments.”Pass It On,” 200.Then
they consolidated all comments on one multi-lith which can be seen in The
Book That Started It All: The Original Working Manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous
(Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2010.
o Other important changes occurred along the
way, at times and by persons I have been unable to identify though much
effort has been expended in that direction. So I will simply list several of
the changes made before and perhaps during the handling of the Working
Manuscript. These were: (1) A large amount of material containing Christian
and biblical material had been discarded over the objections of John Henry
Fitzhugh Mayo. It had apparently contained material “learned from the
missions and the churches that had helped AAs.” The discard was verified in a
conversation between Ruth Hock, the typist and secretary and Bill Pittman,
director of historical information at Hazelden. (2) We know that at least 400
pages of manuscript material was cut by an editor, but no one who described
the incident—even though hired by A.A. General Services to write “Pass It
On”—could confirm anything but the truthfulness of the 400 page discard. But
not what the pages contained or who discarded them. “Pass It On,” 204.
(3) Tom Uzzell of New York University edited the manuscript, and I have
been unable to locate any information about him at NYU or concerning the
changes he made. “Pass It On,” 204. (4) Substantial changes were made
in the Working Manuscript itself. They were hand-written, and the authors
have not yet been identified. However, it was then that Steps Two, Three, and
Eleven were changed to eliminate the word “God.” And the changes were made in
a compromise designed to appease atheists and agnostics.“Pass It On,” 199.
Bill described the contending forces. He said: “Fitz wanted a powerfully
religious book. Henry and Jimmy wanted none of it. They wanted a
psychological book. . .” Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, 17. Bill
said, “All this time I had refused to budge on these steps. I would not
change a word of the original draft, in which, you will remember, I had
consistently used the word “God,” and in one place the expression “on our
knees” was used. The changes from “God” to “Power greater than ourselves” and
to “God as we understood Him. Such were the final concessions to those of
little or no faith; this was the great contribution of our atheists and
agnostics.” Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, 166-167. “Fitz thought that
the book ought to be Christian in the doctrinal sense of the word and that it
should say so. He was in favor of using Biblical terms and expressions to
make this clear. . . Paul K. was even more emphatic. Alcoholics Anonymous
Comes of Age, 162. But Lois Wilson described those change those
changes as follows: “The pros and cons were mostly about the tone of the
book. Some wanted it slanted more toward the Christian religion—others, less.
Many alcoholics were agnostics or atheists. Then there were those of the
Jewish faith and, around the world, of other religions. Shouldn’t the book be
written so that it would appeal to them? Finally it was agreed that the book
should present a universal spiritual program, not a specific one, since all
drunks were not Christian.” Lois Remembers, 113.
It is more than fair to say
that the end result of the 1939 Big Book project was far far different from
the program summarized as the Akron program by Frank Amos. Thus Bill finally
made the following admissions in The Language of the Heart, pp.
297-298:
So, then, how
did we first learn that alcoholism is such a fearful sickness as this? Who
gave us this priceless information on which the effectiveness of our program
so much depends? Well, it came from my own doctor, “the ;little doctor who
loved drunks,” William D. Silkworth. More than twenty-five years ago at Towns
Hospital, New York, he told Lois and me what the disease of alcoholism
actually is
Of course, we
have since found that these awful conditions of mind and body invariably
bring on the third phase of our malady. This is the sickness of the spirit; a
sickness for which there must be a spiritual remedy. We AAs recognize this in
the first five words of Step Twelve of the recovery program . . . Here we
declare the necessity for that all important spiritual awakening. Who,then,
first told us about the utter necessity for such an awakening, for an
experience that not only expels the alcohol obsession, but which also makes
effective and truly real the practice of spiritual principles “in all our
affairs”? Well, this life-giving idea came to us AA through William James,
the father of modern psychology. It came through his famous book Varieties
of Religious Experience. . . William James also heavily emphasized the
need for hitting bottom/ Thus did he reinforce AA’s Step One and so did he
supply us with the spiritual essence of Step
Twelve.
Where did the
early AAs find the material for the remaining ten Steps? Where did we learn
about moral inventory, amends for harms done, turning wills and lives over to
God? Where did we learn about meditation and prayer and all the rest of it?
The spiritual substance of our remaining ten Steps came straight from Dr.
Bob’s and my own earlier association with the Oxford Groups, as they were
then led in America by that Episcopal rector, Dr. Samuel M. Shoemaker.
To learn the difference between
this twelve step program which Bill said emanated from Sam Shoemaker and Dr.
Bob’s statement that the basic ideas came from their study and effort in the
Bible. And the summarized heart of that program is found in the Frank Amos
report in DR BOB and the Good Oldtimers, 131:
Following his visit to Akron in February 1938, Frank Amos,
John D. Rockefeller, Jr.'s agent, summarized the original Akron A.A.
“Program” in seven points. Here are those points, as quoted in Dr. Bob and
the Good Oldtimers:
· An
alcoholic must realize that he is an alcoholic, incurable from a medical
viewpoint, and that he must never drink anything with alcohol in it.
· He
must surrender himself absolutely to God, realizing that in himself there is
no hope.
· Not
only must he want to stop drinking permanently, he must remove from his life
other sins such as hatred, adultery, and others which frequently accompany
alcoholism. Unless he will do this absolutely, Smith and his associates
refuse to work with him.
· He
must have devotions every morning—a “quiet time” of prayer and some reading
from the Bible and other religious literature. Unless this is faithfully
followed, there is grave danger of backsliding
· He
must be willing to help other alcoholics get straightened out. This throws up
a protective barrier and strengthens his own willpower and convictions.
· It
is important, but not vital, that he meet frequently with other reformed
alcoholics and form both a social and a religious comradeship.
· Important,
but not vital, that he attend some religious service at least once weekly.
And we believe that if you
master the original program, study the Big Book, look at our history, and
then take the Twelve Steps, it is possible to get the best results from the
Alcoholics Anonymous fellowship—just as Clarence Snyder did when he brought
those elements to Cleveland and soon measured a 93% success rate there.
Gloria Deo
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Disclaimer: ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, A.A., and Big Book
are registered trademarks of Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. Dick
B.'s web site, Paradise Research Publications, Inc., and Good
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Tuesday, May 15, 2012
AA History Complete - A Major 2012 Undertaking
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