EIGHT PRE-PUBLICATION READER’S REVIEWS

This immense piece of scholarship by William Schaberg zeros in on the very beginning of AA. From the moment Bill Wilson first told his story to Dr. Bob Smith to the publication of the Big Book (formally titled Alcoholics Anonymous) five years passed. During those years a small group of recovering people in New York City dreamed of turning their small success with each other into a national movement that would save the lives of millions. A similar group met in Akron. The New Yorkers asked for help from hundreds of wealthy men who they thought could afford it and who they thought could benefit from what they were doing. No one cared and no one helped (Except for a very small donation from John D. Rockefeller, Jr., which went to Dr. Bob in Akron). Finally, they gave up on raising large amounts of money and spreading their method through hospitals; Bill Wilson decided to write a book that would carry their message of how to survive alcoholism. It seemed highly unlikely that he would succeed or that the book would have the desired effect.

If you have read my husband’s book, Not God: a History of Alcoholics Anonymous, you may think as I did, that you have a good understanding of that history. And you would be wrong. Writing the Big Book zeroes in on the first five years in a way that no other history of AA has captured. And these years were critical. Like a good suspense novel, this book captures the day to day struggles and let downs that these few intrepid men encountered over those years – in the heart of the great depression. Everything they tried to do fell through and yet they persisted. It becomes clear that Bill Wilson, chief protagonist of this suspense story, led this effort. This is especially true when it comes to writing the book. Bill liked for people to think that he had help writing it, but he really did not. He got very little help from other members. This was a big surprise to me because I have a copy of the multilith edition published by Hazelden as The Book That Started it All. But that happened very late in the story.

Another huge surprise to me was the identity of the one man who did come through and finance these struggling, unemployed, down-and-out men. I won’t spoil the surprise by revealing who it was. Another interesting theme throughout these five years was the degree to which Bill and Hank Parkhurst struggled over the inclusion of God in the book and, particularly in the 12 steps. Hank, an atheist, was convinced that mentioning God would drive people away. On the other side of this debate, was the Akron Group, still embedded in the Oxford Groups First Century Christianity and who wanted more religion, not less. But they had less impact than Hank because Hank was working hand-in-hand with Bill on a daily basis. There was not much interaction with Akron. Dr. Bob kept in touch, but he was aware of how his group felt about to the more secular approach in New York and kept Bill’s writing of the book under wraps. Although Bill and Hank worked together closely, Bill often ignored whatever Hank suggested. From today’s standpoint, one can surely see the value in Hank’s position – that God should be left out – but had he succeeded, one wonders whether the fellowship could have been the phenomenon that it is. I think my husband would have said that it would not. Schaberg’s account of the relationship between Bill W. and Hank Parkhurst is surely one of the highlights of this volume.

Schaberg has checked and rechecked his sources so meticulously that he is able over and over to tell us what did happen and debunk many inaccuracies promoted through the years by Bill W. and others whose memories either faded or preferred a different interpretation of events. One of the best parts of this long volume is the story of how Bill wrote the steps. He kept putting it off, but he knew that the book had to explain clearly how followers achieved sobriety; it had to be more than stories in the back of the book. We can see him with his pen and paper trying to tease out the specific actions taken by the men in his New York City group.

What the reader also sees through Schaberg’s authoring is the extreme poverty of these men. The tiny amounts of money tell a story about today’s inflation by comparison, but also how little they needed to do what they were trying to do, i.e., sober up drunks and keep them sober. As long as Bill and Lois Wilson had a home they had men living with them that they were helping to keep sober. And we get to see how little they requested from the rich potential benefactors they petitioned and what small sums they were denied by men who could have spared enough to make them all rich had they been so moved. None of these early AAs had jobs and many were homeless. When Bill and Lois were evicted they lived with other members for two years, homeless themselves. How does a bunch of homeless alcoholics start a worldwide movement? Schaberg’s book tells us how they did it, tiny step by tiny step.

Bill W. knew that there had to be a book, but he got little support from his compatriots and open opposition from those members in Akron. He had to wheedle them into writing recovery stories for the back part of the book. He got the doctor’s opinion. He hoped for an opinion from a famous person but never got it. He labored over the writing. Finally, the first drafts were ready to read by others. With little funds to pay for it, he and Hank had multilith copies made on which revisions were written. Hank Parkhurst helped get editorial contributions from competent and well-known professionals, and finally they found a printer to make the first printing. One of the most charming stories in the book is the one about how Bill W., Hank Parkhurst, and secretary Ruth Hock along with Clarence Snyder’s wife went together to the printer’s shop in Cornwall to help set the type. They were needed for this because there were so many corrections to the manuscript they had to help the printer figure it out. Then they had to spend the night even though they had no money to pay the hotel. Their benefactor paid the bill.

Throughout this final section of this 759 page manuscript, the story and its thrilling ending pull the reader through with bated breath. Of course, any reader will know how the story ends, but even so, it is still hard to believe. This small bunch of penniless drunks started a worldwide movement and their leader wrote one of the bestselling books of all time. Schaberg tells us at the end: there are 2,200,000 AA members in the world today; Time Magazine has named the Big Book one of the top 100 most influential books written since Time Magazine began publication; the Library of Congress named the Big Book one of the 88 books that shaped America; 37 million copies have been sold; the book has been translated into 70 languages.