Preventing the Garbled Message Through the Big Book — David A.

Thank you, Phil. Hi, everybody. My name is David A., and I'm an alcoholic. Hi, David A. And only because of God's grace through the miracle of Alcoholics Anonymous, I have not found it necessary to, nor have I taken a drink of, an alcoholic nature since April the 20th, 1967, and for this I am so thankful. And this afternoon, it will be this alcoholic's role in sharing A.A.'s experience in the history, basically, or the preparation of the good old book, Alcoholics Anonymous. And in April of this year, we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the book. Alcoholics Anonymous. Little did the world realize, or little did A.A.'s realize, it was sober then, that the impact that is contained within the covers of the book of Alcoholics Anonymous, what it will bring to the world. And basically, all this is is just a series of talks, or yarns, or lies, or whatever you want to call it, that cluster around the preparation of the good old book, Alcoholics Anonymous. Now, the talking about a book first started in the living room of Dr. Bob and Ann Smith in Akron. Bill landed in Akron in the summer of 1935 and a little group got started. Bill helped with it briefly and Dr. Smith went on to found the first A.A. group in the world. However, in those days it was not called Alcoholics Anonymous. Dr. Dr. Smith was a 오래 collector who was in the late 1950s. He had written books all his life, including the first book, Alcoholics Anonymous. Dr. Dr. Smith was the first A.A. group in the world. Dr. Bill Knapp, who was the first to write the book, Alcoholics Anonymous, was the first group to write the book, Alcoholics Anonymous, after the collapse. Dr. Bill Knapp, who was the first to write the book, Alcoholics Anonymous, after the collapse. receive its name until after the two words were put on the outside of the book of Alcoholics Anonymous and as a result as it was with new groups it was you know nearly always failure but now and then somebody would see the light and there was progress Bill went back to New York with a little experience and he started a group in New York City and by the time 1937 rolled around a it spread over into Cleveland and began to move south from New York but it was still in those years more or less flying blind a flickering candle indeed that at any moment could be snuffed out so on a late fall afternoon in 1937 in Akron dr. Bob and Bill were talking together in dr. Bob's living room and they began to count sober noses how many had stayed dry in Akron and in New York maybe and maybe a few in Cleveland how many had stayed dry and for how long and when all that was totaled up sure it was just a handful 35 or 40 maybe but enough time had elapsed on enough really fatal cases of alcoholism so that when Bill and Bob grasped the impact of those small statistics Bill and Bob saw for the first time and that this thing was going to succeed you that God in his providence and mercy had thrown a new light into the dark caves and tunnels where we are kind had been and are still living by the millions existing you'd be surprised how many alcoholics are out there drinking right now and it is our job to find them and it is our job to carry this message I'm one of these that firmly believes that every alcoholic who is drinking needs to hear the a message at least once now keep us busy I'll tell you the case now when Bob got sober Cumming out of his dingσεek in New York here about a new hub and famous joe while he should home of the security and Facebook what state he was going to slot photo in the corner called the Ste этой investigation within the late 1930s after a Σ HQ during tch plugging Mok TON wallet within some record's're are dedicated better quality whisky inside the studio than anything else do some kind of日本ian sales zeros by Noble or certain type of company or newspaper was observed that god El highway for early world clean and SA to protect acron from grandes acquisitions for high season hang on for the M S moon vivir Buddha令 morals of willhars at the spielt in попад hairs納 could they transmit the message to them and by what means? Bill and Bob thought that maybe they should go to the old-timers. Well, in those days, you know, everybody was an old-timer. A drunk would come in and get sober, and two days later, a new one would come in, and the one that was sober two days would be the newcomer's sponsor, and then three days later, the sponsor would get drunk, and the new one would be his sponsor. And then they say, go, you know, and then go find some money, somebody else's money, and say to them, now take a year off from your job if you have a job. None of them were working in those days anyway. And travel to all parts of the country during the year and get groups started. Now, hospitals in those days were not too happy with drunks. And, you know, they used to park them in a hospital under gastroenteritis or stomach trouble, and they'd put them up there in the general medical section, and, you know, and them drunks would get up out of the bed, and, you know, they'd... They'd have that short kimono on, and they're halfway between their hips and their knees, and they'd slip into them paper shoes, you know, with no heels, and go down the hall doing that Thorazine shuffle that they do, you know, and screaming in the middle of the... Hey, nurse, how about a drink? And they'd set fire to the beds and everything else, and gave the heart patients more heart trouble, you know, and so, after all, they weren't too happy with drunks in the hospital. So it being obvious that drunks were not very, you know, loving, you know, preachers. And so they figured out, well, they're going to have to have a great chain of AA hospitals, sort of like chain drug stores, grocery stores, chain department stores, because in those days, the chains were founded, and they were the only ones that were making money. And so why not a chain of drunk tanks? And then they could really make the money. So they decided they need some missionaries, subsidized, of course, by a chain of drunk tanks. Now, Bill, being a Wall Street promoter, he was more insistent about those things than Dr. Bob. And after all, it would take a ton of money to finance all of this. And after all, with all this brand new light shining in the dark world, all they would have to do is squirt it into the eyes of the rich people, and they would kick up the money. Besides, they also reflected they're going to have to have some sort of literature. Now, up to that moment, a syllable, not a single word of our program was in writing. It was a sort of a word-or-mouth deal with variations according to each man or woman's fancy. In a general way, this was the pitch. One, if booze has got you down, two, and then you're hopeless, you got an allergy and an obsession, and they're reminded again they were hopeless. Three, if you are, then you better get honest with yourself. Four, take stock, and you ought to talk this out with somebody in confidence. I love that. We got a lot of loose-mouthed folks in Alcoholics Anonymous. They can't wait to run out of a meeting and tell who they saw there and what they heard, you know. And five, and you ought to make restitutions to the harms you did, and you ought to make amends. And six, then you prayed the best you could according to your belief, if you had any. And that was the sum of the word-or-mouth program up to that time. Now, variations of that was already appearing. Now, they said, how could we... Unify this thing. Could we, out of our experience, get certain principles to describe certain methods that had done the job for them? So it became obvious that if this movement was to propagate, it had to have literature, so its message could not be garbled either by the drunks or by the general public. And believe it or not, one of the greatest challenges we have, not only within Alcoholics Anonymous, but to our friends in this world where we live, that there are hundreds of thousands of our members who do not know what Alcoholics Anonymous is not. And they garble our message, and sometimes the public gets a false impression of who we are and what we are and what we're all about. So they said they had to have missionaries, a chain of drunk tanks, and a book. And even at that early date, both Bill and Dr. Bob began to learn that they were not the government of Alcoholics Anonymous. Bob, perhaps more than Bill. And Bob already realized that they were not the government of Alcoholics Anonymous. Bob realized that the conscience of the group, a well-informed opinion of the group, in the group's best interest, it could be better than both Dr. Bob and Bill's. So they thought it would be better to consult people. Now there was a non-alcoholic by the name of T. Henry Williams and his wife, and they let the Akron bunch use their home. So a meeting was called of the Akron group, that is, those who had been sober any length of time, and then managed to scrape up about a hundred people. And they had a meeting with a group of people, and they had a meeting with a group of people, and they had a meeting with a group of them. They had a meeting with a group of people, and they had a meeting which came out early in the night, and it was about 18. And Bill and Bob told them that they were within sight of success. Then they thought that this deal would go on and on and on, and that a new life is shining in this dark world of the alcoholic. But how could this light be transmitted without being distorted. Or garbled. At this moment, the meeting then turned over to Bill, and Bill being a salesman and a promoter, Bill set right to work on the drunk tanks and subsidies for the missionaries and touched up on Bill and Bob for on theі ultra heavy duty Оr why Dr. Brown he believed that you were fired. Uh, these biteおn long days create反. And however effectively thearchics gentleman who was the great�에 and the chairman of the Coffee Earth 1975, well, did not do that for called race and station. An united a little on the book. And the group conscience, which consisted of 18 men, were darn skeptical about it all. And almost with one voice, they shouted, let's keep it simple. This is going to bring money into this thing. This is going to create a professional class. We'll all be ruined. Bill countered by admitting that their arguments had merit, but he also reminded them that alcoholics were dying like flies all over the world. And how were we going to carry this message to others? He reminded them that they had to take some kind of chance. He said, we can't keep it so simple that it becomes an anarchy and thus gets complicated. We can't keep it simple that it will not propagate itself and that we have to have a lot of money to do these things. And after Bill had exerted his cunning to the utmost, they finally got a vote in that meeting. And it was a close vote at that. Oh, maybe by a majority of two or three. And then the meeting then said to Bill with some reluctance, well, if we need a lot of money, you better go back to New York where there's plenty of it and you raise the money. Well, that's exactly what Bill wanted to hear. Just what he had been waiting for. So he scrammed back to the Big Apple and he began to approach some people with money and to describe this tremendous thing. That it happened, but it did not seem so tremendous to people with money at all. Why? They said 35 or 40 drunk sobered up. They've sobered up before, you know. And besides Mr. Wilson, they told him, do you not think that it's kind of sweeping up the crumbs? Wasn't something for the Red Cross or the Salvation Army or the community chess be better? And with all of Bill's cunning and conning, he got one heck of a freeze from the gentleman of wealth. Things were rough in New York. They were starving to death on Clinton Street. Drunks were eating the Wilsons out of house and home. For in those days, they never charged anybody for anything. And Bill's wife, Lois, was earning the money working in an apartment store. And Bill was being a missionary and the drunks were eating all the meals. And this couldn't go on. And Bill kept plugging away to get them darn drunk tanks. And then he kept hammering away, we've got to have them paid missionaries. And we've got to have them pay the money. And he kept hammering away, we've got to have them pay the money. And he kept hammering away, we've got to have them pay the money. And he kept hammering away, we've got to have a book. Well, one morning, Bill called on his brother-in-law, a physician by the name of Dr. Leonard Strong. And Bill began to bellyache about those rich guys who wouldn't give him any money. This great and glorious enterprise that was well on its way. It seemed, however, that Dr. Strong, when he was in high school, he was friendly with a gal and he dated her and she had an uncle. And that uncle was tied up with the Rocker family. And he asked Bill if he wanted to, they would call up the Rockefeller offices and see if that man was still there. And if he is, or if he's still alive, and would he see them? Well, Bill hadn't tried the Rockefeller offices yet. So they agreed to give him a call. Oh, on what slender threads our destinies sometimes hang. Remember Bill's brother-in-law said he dated? A girl. And she had an uncle. And so the call was made. And a voice came on the wire, the voice of Mr. Willard Richardson, one of the loveliest gentlemen that Bill and Alcoholics Anonymous was to ever know. And the moment he recognized Bill's brother-in-law, he says, why, Leonard, where have you been all these years? And after a few exchanges, Dr. Strong explained to Mr. Richardson that he had a brother-in-law who was a good man. And he said, well, I'm not a good man. I'm a good man. I'm a good man. And he said, well, I'm a good man. And he said, well, I'm a good man. And he said, well, I'm a good man. And he said, well, I'm a good man. And I'm a good man. He was having success in sobering up drunks. And could the two of them come over and see him? Sure, said Mr. Richardson, come right over. So they went over to the Rockefeller plaza to see Mr. Richardson and right into Mr. Rockefeller's personal offices. And after meeting Mr. Richardson, Bill sat down and told him about their exciting discovery, this terrific cure for alcoholism that had just hit the world. how it works, and what they had done. And this was the first receptive man with money or access to money because Mr. Richardson was Mr. John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s personal executive secretary and above all, perhaps Mr. Rockefeller's best personal friend. So Mr. Richardson said, why yes, he was much interested. Then he asked Bill to have lunch with him, and for a rising promoter, Bill thought things were looking up. During lunch, they would go over the deal again, and after lunch, he asked Bill if he would like to have a larger meeting with some of Mr. Richardson and Mr. Rockefeller's friends. He said, there is Mr. Frank Amos, he's in the advertising business, and he was on the committee that recommended that John D. Rockefeller Jr. drop the prohibition business that he was involved in. And then there's Mr. Leroy Chipman. He looked after Mr. Rockefeller's real estate. And then there's Mr. Scott, chairman of the board of the Riverside Church, and a number of people like that, and that he believed that they would like to hear Bill's story. And so on a winter's night, a meeting was held in late December of 1937, called in post-haste for this meeting a couple of drunks and Dr. Bob from Akron and another drunk. Bill came. He came in with a New York bunch, four or five. The meeting was held in Mr. John D. Rockefeller Jr.'s personal boardroom, and Bill really got excited when he was told that he was sitting in a chair just vacated by Mr. Rockefeller, and Bill could just feel that money coming right up his leg into his hip pocket. Dr. Silkworth was there, and he testified what he had seen happen, and each drunk, thinking of nothing better to say, each told their story. That's a wonderful story, and you can all just miss that. And just to the next thing, I want to just talk to you about the miracle of the Salvation Army, which is about a duo ofYes, 10, 11, 12, and 16 year olds, and now many, many people know this one-time beginning. They had gone through an arm-dam Teacher at Colf '' Wesley Perry. and he did get the Doherty師 Fellowship program in New York back in 1994 and at him he was wellóriaing. Ressler started putting on the big Dutch by bringing up the subject of drunk tanks, the subsidized missionaries, and this question of a book or literature. Well, God moves in mysterious ways and his wonders to perform. But it certainly did not look like a wonder to Bill when Mr. Scott, head of a large engineering firm, chairman of the Riverside Church, looked at this bunch of drunks and said, but gentlemen, up to this point, this has been the work of goodwill only. No buildings, no property, no paid people, just one carrying the good news to the next. Is that not true? And here is where he dropped his bombshell. And may it not be that that is where the great power of your society lies. Now, if we subsidize this, might it not alter its whole character? We want to do all we can. We are gathered here. We are gathered here for that purpose. But would it be right and wise? Then all the drunks gave Mr. Scott the rush and said, why, there are only 40 of us, and it's taken three long years. Why, millions will rot before this thing gets to them, unless we have money and a lot of it. So one of the businessmen volunteered to investigate them very carefully. And since poor old Dr. Bob was harder up at that time than Bill, and since the first AA group, as we know it today, was in a typical community situation in Akron, the drunks directed their friend, his attention, out in Akron. And Mr. Frank Amos, who later became a trustee at his own expense, went out to Akron, made all the inquiries about Dr. Bob, and all the reports were good, except that he was a drunk who had recently gotten over it. He visited the little meeting out there. He went to the Smith's. He went home, and he came back with what he thought was a very modest project. And he recommended that they could recommend a token amount of money at first, $50,000. And that would clear off the mortgage on Dr. Bob's home, would get the drunks in Akron a little rehabilitation place, put Dr. Bob in charge, subsidize a few of those people, start a chain of hospitals, subsidize a few missionaries, and then they could get back to work. And he would get busy maybe on the book. However, Mr. Richardson took that report into Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.'s office, who read the report, and he told Mr. Richardson, somehow I'm strangely stirred by all this. This interests me immensely. And then he dropped his bombshell. But isn't money going to spoil this thing? I'm terribly afraid that it would, and yet I'm so strangely stirred. I'm terribly afraid that it would, and yet I'm so strangely stirred by it all. The next turning point in our destiny came when that man whose business was giving away money said to Mr. Richardson, no, I will not be the one to spoil this thing with money. Now you say these men who are heading it are strapped for cash. I'll put $5,000 in the Riverside Church Treasury. You folks can form yourself into a committee and draw on it as you like, but please do not ask, ask me for any more. But I want to hear what goes on. And if you can remember that last line, but I want to hear what goes on, and we'll pick it up later. Well, the $50,000 had then shrunk to $5,000. Then the drunks paid the mortgage on Dr. Bob's house, which was about $3,000. That left $2,000, and Bill and Dr. Bob started eating away on that. Well, what are they going to do? Well, they had more meetings with their newfound friends, Amos, Richardson, Scott, Chipman, and those fellows who stuck with the drunks from then on. And they formed what was then known as the Old Alcoholic Association, which became the Alcoholic Foundation, which is now named the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous. And for those of you who may think that Alcoholics Anonymous started in the gutter, Alcoholics Anonymous, when that foundation was started, had the most prestigious office, the most prestigious office, the most prestigious office, of any fellowship or recovery program in the world, has seen, is seen, or probably will see. That office was 30 Rockefeller Plaza, room 5600, New York City, New York, the personal offices of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and baby, you can't get more high class than that. And in spite of Mr. Rockefeller's advice, the drunks again tried to convince their new friends that this thing needed a lot of money. So, they went to the New York City, New York, New York City, New York, New York, Orlando, New York, and 한국국 Lee 가지고 어떤let odd prepare nuked against gay marriage i失 tane artery theyorg king Reforming theаков щоб They were in this resolution, andassemble, a lawyer, however, was much confused. Because in the meeting in which the foundation was formed, the drunks made it very plain that the drunks did not wish to be in a majority. They felt that there should be non-alcoholics on the board, and they ought to be in the majority of one. Now, the reason for it was very simple, because the non-alcoholics would be a majority of the board. And so when they had a board meeting, that if all the drunks on the board got drunk, they could still have a board meeting because they would have a majority. And we ain't too stupid, you know. Sure, said the lawyer, but then what is the difference between an alcoholic and a non-alcoholic? And there's always a smart drunk running around, and one of the smart drunks said, well, that's a cinch. A non-alcoholic is one who can drink alcohol, and an alcoholic is one who can't drink alcohol. Now, if you would like to read how it's legally stated, if one would read the service manual, the Bible says, By laws of the General Service Board, we have non-alcoholics trustees and we have alcoholic trustees. And it's stated legally, basically, in those words, but a little bit more on a legal basis of it. Well, you know, and so as a result of it, so at length, they had a foundation and a board, which then consisted of seven or four of their new friends and some of the drunk, three of the drunks. Dr. Bob went on the board, but Bill sort of coyly stayed off, thinking that it would be more convenient later on. So with this new foundation formed with the idea of needing a lot of money, the drunks started again to solicit money, and again from the very rich. Now, they had a list of a bunch of people that the Rockefellers knew, and even if the Rockefellers didn't know them, and the drunks found out they had a lot of money, they used that list anyway and used Rockefeller's name. And credentials, and they had letters of friends, and how could they miss, they asked themselves. Now, the foundation had been formed in the spring of 1938, and all summer long they solicited the rich. Well, they were either in Florida, or they were in Africa, or they were in Europe, or they were in Hawaii, and many of them preferred the Red Cross, and some thought the drunks were disgusting, and they did not get one darn cent in the whole summer of 1938. Thank God. In the meantime, they began to hold trustee meetings, and they were commiseration sessions on getting no money. And what with the mortgage, and Bill, and Dr. Bob eating away at it, and the 5,000 almost gone, and here they are all busted again. You notice none of the drunks thought about going out and working and making some money. And Dr. Smith had his trouble getting his practice back, because patients were a little leery about being carved up. He was a little leery about being carved up by an alcoholic surgeon. And isn't it utterly amazing that our two co-founders, here was Bill, he was a stockbroker, a busted stockbroker, and Dr. Bob, a rear-end surgeon. Now, that's a combination for drunks, you know. And basically, Dr. Bob was in the best position to see a drunk's brains. Because, you see, us drunks, we are wired backwards. Our brains is in our rear end. Our rear end is in our head. That's a precise reason we can't sit in the meeting board an hour. We wear our brains out, you know. And they were a little leery about a drunk surgeon, you know, even though he's sober, carving up. Even if he'd been sober three years, you know. And things were tough all around. Well, what are they going to do? So one day in August 1938, Bill produced at a foundation meeting, a couple of chapters of a proposed book in rough and in mimeograph. As a matter of fact, they had been using those two chapters, the introduction to the book and Bill's story, along with some recommendations from some physicians down at Johns Hopkins Medical Center to try to put the bite on the rich and also to get their approval so they could use it for credentials. Then Mr. Amos said, I know the religious editor down there at Harper's. Why don't you take those two books? And he took those two book chapters down to Harper's to Mr. Gene Axman. That is, Bill, your story, the introduction to the book, and see what he thinks. And to Bill's surprise, Mr. Axman, another one who became one of our friends of ours, looked at the chapters and asked Bill if he could write a whole book like this. And Bill didn't miss like he sure would be easy, you know. Well, Mr. Axman took the two chapters into Mr. Canfield's office. Another meeting was held, and the result was that Harper's, co-author of The höherаничist, awesome convention, of mass government, said that it would be good to write a book about Beta engine launch. And first, do you know what? Well, yeah. And if this thing gets all the publicity that we're hoping that it's going to get, what are we going to do about the inquiries? And after all, what's a lousy 10% royalty anyway? Then they thought, too, even though Harper's was a fine publisher, if this book, if and when done, would prove to be the main textbook of Alcoholics Anonymous, why would we want our main means of propagation in the hands of somebody else? Should we not control it? And thank God it belongs to us. It belongs to nobody else in this world. That book is ours. And that is where all of the experience in doing this came about by our loving non-alcoholic friends. And so as a result of it, and, and after that, then the book project really began to take off. And then they said, well, what we ought to do is form a book company, a publishing company, incorporation. Let's call it the Works Publishing Company, this being the first of many great works. And then they could sell stock certificates to all of the drunks and get some money coming in to support the author and the guy who collected the money and the gal, Ruthie Hawk, Hank Parker's secretary, who was, who was helping on the book. So they took this idea into the next trustees meeting and they all shook their heads and said, no. Well, then they had an alcoholic rebellion. And they told their non-alcoholic friends, well, after all, you didn't produce any money. And we think we're going to try this thing on separate from the foundation. So Bill had a drunk helping him on this thing, one super promoter by the name of Hank Parkhurst. And Hank said to Bill, this is, this is easy. Come on with me. They went out and they walked into a stationary store and they bought a blank pad of blank stock certificates. They wrote across the top of them, Works Publishing Company, par value $25. Then they took this pad of stock certificates. Of course, they didn't even bother to incorporate it. And that didn't happen for several more years to the next day meeting where we're not supposed to mix money with spirituality. And they say to the drunks, look here. Now, look here. Now, look here. Now, look here. Now, look here, you drunks. This thing is going to be a cinch. Parkhurst will take a third of this thing for services rendered. I, Bill, the author, will take a third for services rendered. And you drunks can have a third of these stock certificates, par $25, if you will just start paying up on your stock. If you only want one share, $5 a month for five months. And all the drunks gave Bill and Hank that cold look. And they said, what the heck? You mean to say that you're asking us to buy stock in a book that you haven't even written yet? Why, sure, said Bill, if Harper Sink will put money into this book. But the drunks said, no deal. So Hank and Bill started a new pitch at the drunks. They told them that they had been looking at the printing costs of the book. And he said, now we got a book here that we think will be between 400 and 450 pages. And it ought to sell for $3.50. Now, back in those days, they found on inquiry from printers that if they're going to sell a book for $3.50, it could be printed for $0.35, making a thousand percent profit. Of course, they didn't tell the drunks about the other expenses that would be involved. So just think, boys, when this book moves out in carload lots, we're printing them for $0.35. We're going to sell them for $3.50 by direct mail. How could you lose? And the drunks still didn't give a damn. They didn't give a damn. They didn't give a damn. They didn't give a damn. And Bill said, heck no. So Hank and Bill figured that they had to have a better argument than that. How are we going to convince the drunks that we'll move these books out in carload lots, millions of dollars? So they get the idea to go up to Reader's Digest. Now, they really didn't get that idea originally. Dr. Silkworth at that time was renting a house from Mr. Wallace. And Mr. Wallace was the owner of Reader's Digest. And Dr. Silkworth would send his check in to the treasurer of Reader's Digest, a Mr. Walters, every month. And he was getting ready to send the first two chapters of the book in with a little note to Mr. Walters to give to Mr. Wallace, who in turn, maybe the Reader's Digest would be interested in it. And so that was the connection there. And so they got an appointment with Mr. Payne, the managing editor of Reader's Digest, and excitingly told him, the exciting story of their budding society. They dwelled on their friendship of Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Harry Emerson Fosdick, and everybody they could think of. And the society was about to publish a textbook. And would this not be a matter of tremendous interest to the Reader's Digest? Of course, the drunks were thinking of Reader's Digest circulation, which at that time had about 12 million readers. And they got to thinking if the Reader's Digest was going to be a great success, they would be able to promote it. And they just went on to publish it. And they got to thinking if the Reader's Digest was going to be a great success, they would be able to promote it. And they just went on to publish it. And they just went on to publish it. Well, they said if they could get a book that would just give them a free plug or an ad, then maybe they could really move the book. Now, Mr. Payne liked the idea. Asked Bill when the projected book would be finished. And then he said, I will take the matter up with the editorial board. And when the time is right and you get the book all ready to shoot, come on up. We'll put on a special feature writer on this thing. Well, this was all that Bill and Hank needed to hear. So they ran back to New York. and he ran back to the drunks and said, Look here, boys, there are positively millions of dollars in this thing for us. How can you miss? And after all, we only need $4,000 or $5,000. So they began to sell shares in Works Publishing, not yet incorporated, $5 a month to poor people. One guy bought 10 shares. They sold a few shares to non-alcoholics. And Hank, who was very important in this deal, because he's the one that went out and kept collecting the money, so Bill and Ruthie Hawk could work on a book. And then Lois, although she was still working in the department store, get a little extra money for groceries to feed them drunks that were still eating the meals. And so, as a result, so the preparation started. Some more chapters were written, and they went into AA meetings in New York with the chapters in the rough. And the drunks started chewing those chapters apart, and Bill suddenly found himself, in a whirlpool of argument. And Bill was just the umpire, and he said, look boys, over here you got the holy rollers, who say we need all that good old fashioned stuff in the book. Over here you say we have to have a psychological book. You have to have the God book. And the psychological books never cured anybody. And they didn't do too much with the drunks and the missions. So I guess you'll just have to leave it to me, to be the umpire. I will scribble out some things here. Let's get the comments. So they fought, bled, and died through one chapter of another, and sent them out to Akron for their comments, and their changes, and their approval. And once again, terrific hassles developed on what should go in the book. Meanwhile, drunks were set writing their stories, and then came the night when they got to chapter five. Because here is a point in the book where the book had to say what this thing is all about, and how this deal works. As I said before, it was originally a six-step program. And one night Bill was laying in bed trying to think of what chapter five would be all about. And then the idea came to Bill. He said that we need a definite statement, concrete principles, that the drunks cannot wiggle out of. There cannot be wiggling out of this deal at all. And the six-step program had two big gaps in it. Moreover, if this book goes out to the distant readers, they're going to have to have an absolutely explicit program by which to go by. And while Bill was thinking these things over, and while he was mad as a dickens at the drunks because the money was slow in coming in, there's a knock on the door. Bill went to the door, and one of the members brought a new one in, and he asked Bill what he was doing, and Bill told him he was writing a book, and all this. And the drunk got mad. And he said, And Bill just ran about and said, And he went up to the bed. And when he got on the bed, there was a pad of paper and a pencil. And he said to himself, I have to break this thing up into small pieces. And he just started writing, trying to bust it up into little pieces. And it took him about 25, 30 minutes. And when he got the pieces set down, he put numbers on them. And he wrote down the numbers. And he was agreeably surprised when it came out at 12. He noticed that he had plugged the two holes. That instead of leaving the God idea until the last, he put it up front. That was in the second step as we know it today. And you know what the most tremendous hole he plugged? Steps 6 and 7. The glue that anchors our recovery program. And for incidentally, any of you who read the steps may not realize it, that the sixth step is the only step in the 12-step program that is in the present tense. Which means we surrender every day, but one day at a time. But he didn't pay too much attention to the 12 steps, and he thought it looked pretty good. By the time the next meeting came along, Bill had gone beyond the steps, trying to amplify them in the rest of the chapter. And then he took the steps and that chapter 5 into the meeting, and all heck broke loose. And the drunks started screaming, what do you mean by changing our program? What about this? What about that? This is overloaded with God. We don't like this. You got those drunk down on their knees. Stand them up. A lot of the drunks are scared of being God-bitten. Let's take God out of it entirely. And such were the arguments they had. And out of that terrific hassle about the 12 steps, there did come a tense room. There did come a tense strike. That argument caused the introduction of the phrase in our 12 steps that's been the lifesaver for hundreds and hundreds of alcoholics who have come to AA, are coming to AA, and will come to AA. By which Bill owned words, something not of his own doing. Because Bill was still on the pious side then, suffering from his big hot flash. But what came out of that was the idea of God as we understand him. What came out of that perfectly ferocious argument. What a lifesaver. And that was put into the steps. And little by little the book ground down. Little by little the drunks put the money in the office. And an office was kept over in Newark. And the money ran low at times. And little Ruthie Hock worked for no pay. But when she wanted some money, they gave her plenty of stock. All they did was tear off some more of the blank stock certificates, fill in Works Publishing Company, power five, and here's another week's pay. And in January 1939 when somebody said, why don't we test this thing out with a pre-publication copy, a monolithic or a mimeograph copy of this text, and a few other stories, and try it out on the doctors and the preachers and the Catholic committee on publications, psychiatrists, policemen, fish wives, housewives, drunks, everybody. Just to see if they have anything that goes against the grain any place. And also to see if we can get some better ideas. At considerable expense, a pre-publication copy was made. Comments came back, many very helpful. It went to the Catholic Committee on Publication in New York. And at that time, they only had one member that was a Catholic to take it there. And he had just gotten out of the insane asylum. And had nothing to do with the preparation of the book. And to their great surprise, it was well received. And they were impressed. So the book somehow passed muster. Somehow the stories came in. Somehow the galleys were gotten together. Then they got up to the printing contract. But the drunks weren't paying up. So Bill went up to see Colonel Towns. And the colonel who believed in the drunks mightily. And they put the slug on him for $500. But he didn't want any of that stock for $2500. Right? He said, I don't want any of that phony stock. You give me a promissory note. And so Bill guaranteed the note. And I don't want it on a book that's not even written. And the $2500 was routed around the alcoholic foundation. So it would be tax exempt. And in those six months with the office and supporting three people. They had blown about $6000. And the till was getting mighty low again. And still they had to get the book printed. So they went up to Cornwall Press. Which in that time was the largest printer in the world. And asked about printing. And they said, yes. They would be glad to do it. Then they asked them how many books they wanted. Well, they gave them the same old pitch about being a small membership. But the Reader's Digest was going to write an article about the book. And it was hard to estimate how many they needed. And they had the backing of Mr. John D. Rockefeller, Jr. And all that kind of noise. And they assured the press. And they assured the printer that one thing about it. That once this book is printed it will go out and carload lots. Now, the Mr. Printer was none other than Mr. Blackwell. Who later became one of our tremendous friends. Then Mr. Blackwell said, well boys, how much of a down payment are you going to make? How many books would you like? So they told him, well let's print 5000 to start with. And then Mr. Blackwell said, well, I'm going to print 5000. And they told him, well, let's print 5000 to start with. And he said, well, what are you going to use for money? And he was told, well, not very much. Maybe a few hundred on account. But remember, we're traveling in good company. And so Mr. Blackwell started printing the 5000 books, 10 cents down per book. And then all of a sudden they thought of the Reader's Digest. So they went up to the Reader's Digest and they walk in on Mr. Payne. And they say, we're ready to shoot. And Mr. Payne said, shoot what? And then he said, oh yes. I remember you, Mr. Wilson and Mr. Parkhurst, when you were up here last fall. I told you that the Reader's Digest would be interested in this new work and in your new book. But right after you were here, I consulted with our editorial board and much to my surprise, they did not like the idea at all. That the book was too controversial. And I simply forgot to tell you. Well, here Hank and Bill had the drunks with four or five thousand in it. Colonel Towns hooked for 2500. And on the cuff was a printer and maybe about 500 bucks left in the bank. What are they going to do now? Now, Morgan Ryan, who had taken the book over to the Catholic Foundation, had at one time been a terrific advertising guy. And he said, look boys, I know Gabriel Heater. And Gabriel Heater is putting on those three minute radio programs on the air. And I'll get an interview with Gabriel Heater. So their spirits rose once again. And then all of a sudden, they had a big chill. Supposing this Irishman got drunk before Heater interviewed him. Meanwhile, Heater agreed to interview Morgan and the drunks still got more scared. So they rented a room in the downtown athletic club. And they put Morgan in there with a day and night guard for ten days. Meanwhile, their spirits were rising. The drunks could see those books just flooding the country. Then Hank said, now we need to follow up this Heater thing to be heard all over the country. And I think that the big market for the book are the physicians and other doctors. And I suggest that we take the last $500 we got in the bank and invest it on a postal card shower going to every physician east of the Mississippi River. And on the postal card, we'll say, here are all about Alcoholics Anonymous on Gabriel Heater's program. Send $3.50 for the book Alcoholics Anonymous. Sure a cure for alcoholism. And this was done. They managed to keep Morgan sober. All the drunks had their ears glued to the roof. They had their ears glued to the radio. But you see, the AA market was already saturated. Because they had 49 stockholders and they all got a book for free. And everybody who had a story in the book, they got one for free. And there was no more drunks left to sell to anything, too. The AA market was exhausted. And so as a result, but they could just envision these doctors and their patients buying millions of these books. Morgan is interviewed. Heater pulls out all the stops. And the drunks couldn't wait to go down to the old post office box, 658 Church Street, Annex. The address printed in the back of the first printing of the book of Alcoholics, in old big red. Now they hung to it for about three days. They were too nervous to go down. And then Hank, Ruthie, and Bill went over to the post office. And they looked in the box 658. Now it wasn't a regular lock box where you opened it from the front. It's a little Isinglass. And then you had to go around to the postal teller and ask him to go get your mail. And so then they went around to the post office. And they looked in that little box. And they could see, oh, maybe a few postal cards. And Bill had a terrific sinking spell. But Hank, the promoter, said, Why, Bill, they can't put all of our cards that are coming to us in that little bitty box. Why, they got mail bags full back there. Let's go to the clerk. So they go to the clerk. And he brings out 12 lousy post office cards. Ten of them completely illegible, written by doctors drunk as monkeys. And they had exactly two orders for the book, Alcoholics Anonymous. And they are absolutely and utterly and totally broke. The sheriff then moved into the office. And poor Mr. Blackwell wondered what to do for money. And he felt like taking the book over. And at that very moment, he was in the office. And at that very opportune moment, the house in which the Wilsons were living in was foreclosed. And the Wilsons and their furniture was set out in the street. And then the drunks started screaming, What about our $4,500? And Colonel Towns was uneasy. What would they do then? And that's what you call a bad day. And that was the state of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous, in the summer of 1939. They began to shop around from one magazine to another, and nobody bit. And it looked like the whole thing was going down the drain. However, one of the boys in New York, who was a little prosperous at the time in the clothing business by the name of Burt Taylors, saved them. And Bill went to see them. And he told Burt that there was a promise of an article in the Liberty Magazine, but it would not come out until the following September. And to be called Alcoholics and God to be written by Morris Markey. And because Fulton Ousler was then the editor of the Liberty Magazine. And he said, Look, Burt, we need $1,000 to get us through the summer. Burt said, I don't have the money, but I have a friend down in Baltimore, Mr. Cocker. He's with the wet and dry business. And Bill said, Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. I don't know about this wet and dry business. And Burt said, Heck, Bill, you're not going to be fussy when you're broke and you need this $1,000, are you? He's a customer of mine. I sell him pants. Let me call him up. So Burt gets him on the phone and he tells Mr. Cocker. And he says, You know, from time to time, I had mentioned to you about this alcoholic fellowship, which I belong to. And Mr. Cocker, our fellowship has just come out with a magnificent new textbook, Sure Cure for Alcoholism. And it's something we believe that every public library in the country should have. And the retail price of the book is $3.50. But if you will buy a couple of thousand and put them in the large public libraries, of course, we would sell to you, if you want to use it for that purpose, the book at a considerable discount. Mr. Cocker didn't buy that deal. And then Burt tells him that some publicity about this book will come out. But in the meantime, he said, We desperately need $1,000 to tide us over the summer. Would you loan the Works Publishing Company $1,000? Well, Mr. Cocker said, Well, what does this Works Publishing Company's balance sheet look like? And when he was told, he says, No, thank you. And then Burt then asked, Would you loan the money to me personally on the credit of my business? Yes. Why, sure, said Mr. Cocker. Just send up your personal note. So Burt hopped his business. Didn't make any difference. A year or two later, it went broke. And that's what saved the book Alcoholics Anonymous at that time. And that lasted until the Liberty Magazine article came out. And then 800 inquiries came in as a result of that article. They moved a few books, barely squeaked through the year 1939. But all this time, nothing had been heard from John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Meanwhile, foundation meeting after foundation meeting, too bad we're having such a hard time. Sorry, we're not going to give you any money. When all of a sudden, about February 1940, Mr. Richardson came to a trustees meeting and announced that Mr. Rockefeller, whom nothing had been heard from since 1940, had been watching all of this with immense interest. Moreover, he said, Mr. Rockefeller would like to give the fellowship a dinner to which he would invite his friends to see the beginning of this new and promising start. And then Mr. Richardson produced the invitation list. And my God, who's who in the world of finance, religion, education, corporations, energy, were all on that list. And many of them extremely rich. Walter Chrysler, chairman of Chrysler Motor Company, the president of Ford Motor Company, the president of General Motors Company, John Foster Dulles, the Ossenslosses, Wendell Wilkie, the chairman of the boards of all the large insurance companies, AT&T, all the transmission companies, the Sarnoffs, everybody in radio. Men of extreme wealth. And Bill, you know, and Bill took a quick look at that list and he said, my God, that adds up to maybe two or three billion dollars. And so the dinner came and they got Harry Emerson Fosdick to review the A book. He gave a wonderful interview. He gave a wonderful plug. Foster Kennedy came and spoke of the medical attitude as he had seen a very hopeless gal, Marty Mann recover, who was one of his patients. Bill got up and talked about the life among the anonymized and the bankers. Seventy-five strong sat at the table and they interspersed members of the drunks among them. And well, the bankers came and come as a sort of a command performance because they all did business with the bankers. They were all at the Rockefeller banks and they were a little suspicious. And perhaps this was another one of John D. Junior's prohibition deals. But then they warmed up under the influence of the drunks that were sitting with them. And Morgan Ryan was asked at his table by a very distinguished banker, why, Mr. Ryan, we presume that you are in the banking business. And no, Mr. Ryan said, not at all. I'm just fresh out of the Greystone Insane Asylum. . . . But unfortunately, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. could not get to the dinner. He was quite ill and he sent his son, a wonderful man, Nelson Rockefeller, in his place instead. And after the show was over with and the drunks were ready to really put the big touch and the bite on them rich people, Nelson Rockefeller got up and speaking for his father said, My father sends word that he is so sorry. That he cannot be here tonight. But so glad that many of his friends are here at this dinner. And they could see the beginning of this great and wonderful thing. Something Nelson Rockefeller said that has affected his father's life more than anything else in the world. A tremendous and tremendous plug that was. Then said Nelson, but fortunately, gentlemen, this is the work that proceeds on goodwill. It requires no money. Whereupon the two billion bucks got up and walked out. . . . And again the hand of providence intervened. Right after the dinner, Mr. Rockefeller asked that the talks be published in a pamphlet. And he approached the rather defunct works publishing company and said that he would like to buy 400 books to send to all of those who had come to the dinner and all whom invited and had not come. And seeing that this was for a good purpose, they let Mr. Rockefeller have the books cheap. Real cheap. He bought them cheaper than anybody has ever been able to buy them. They sold 400 books to John D. Rockefeller, Jr. for one buck apiece. And with the book and pamphlets, he sent out a personally written letter. And he personally hand signed every one of them. And in this letter he again recited how glad he was that his friends had been able to see this great new beginning of what he thought was the most wonderful thing. How deeply it had affected him. And then he said, this fortunately is a work of goodwill. It needs little, if any, money. Perhaps a slight amount of temporary help. . . . And I am giving those good people $1,000. Well, when the rich folks that were invited to that dinner, they received John G. Jr., well, they all added it up on the cuff. And he said, well, if Don G. Jr. is a multi-billionaire and has given a thousand to me with only about $200 million, I'm going to give him ten bucks. One had an alcoholic relative and he sent in $300. So all told, as a result of that dinner, they got together $3,000. Which was the first outside contribution to the Alcoholic Foundation. And that money was divided up equally between Bill and Dr. Bob so they could keep going. And somehow they solicited that dinner list for five years at the average of about $3,000 a year. And at the end of that time, they were able to say to Mr. Rockefeller, thank you, we do not need any more of your money or your friends' money. The book Income is helping to support our office. The groups are contributing to fill in. The royalties from the book are taking care of Dr. Bob and Bill Wilson. And thank you, we are now being self-supporting through our own contribution. For your information, Alcoholics Anonymous is the only recipient of Rockefeller Foundation money that is repaid every cent. They repaid every penny. And I'll tell you something else about Mr. Rockefeller. In order for the Alcoholic Foundation to receive ownership of the book in trust for us, our members, they had to pay off a lot of debts. They didn't have any money. And Mr. Chipman talked Mr. Rockefeller, and two of Mr. Rockefeller's sons, and loaning them works, so he could settle up the stock and all the debts, and Bill personally guaranteed all of the debts. And it weighed heavily on Bill. And they loaned them the money to bail them out. And it's very interesting. I've seen a copy of the letter of the first payment that they sent back to pay off the debt. It was $295. Mr. Rockefeller wrote them back and he thanked them for the payment of $295. And he said, But I want to remind you of our original deal. Now the loan was made for $11,500.03 interest. But he said, I told you at that time, personally, I didn't want any interest. But I also want to remind you, I also told you, that for every cent you repaid me, I would forgive too. That's how much he loved our kind of people. And so if any of you get any squirrely ideas in your head about knocking them non-alcoholics out there in the world that are trying to help you, stop and listen. Now maybe you can see that Mr. Rockefeller's decision not to give us money, he forced us to be honest. He forced us to pay our debts. It saved our society. He gave of himself. He gave of himself when he was under public ridicule for his views about alcohol. He said to the whole world, This thing is good. The story went out on the wires all over the world. People ran into the bookstores. They got the new book. An awful lot of inquiries came into the little office on Veazey Street. And the book money began to pay off. The book money began to pay for an additional helper. And then comes Jack Alexander with his terrific article in the Saturday Evening Post in March of 1941. And there came an immense flood of inquiries. Six or seven thousand. And Alcoholics Anonymous had become a national institution. And such is the story of the preparation of the book Alcoholics Anonymous and of its subsequent effect, whom all of us here in this meeting right this very second have some notion. Now the proceeds from that book have repeatedly saved the office in New York City. But it isn't the money that came out of it that matters. It is the message that this book carries within it that has transcended the mountains and the seas. And even at this moment, lighting candles in dark cabins and in distant lands where our kind are still existing. And in closing, I'd like to read a letter to you. A very interesting letter. And the following letter was written to Bill from Hank Parkhurst. And he attached the letter that Mr. Amos had sent him. And Hank writes, Dear Bill, I am rushing off to you excerpts from a letter just received from Mr. Thomas Uzell, former editor of Collier's Magazine, writer of several books, contributor to Collier's Saturday Evening Post, and other magazines of that nature. And as you know, hardly a year goes by when one of Mr. Uzell's writings do not appear on the bestseller list. Incidentally, this might be interesting to you. Such books as The Good Earth, If I Had Four Apples, The Outward Room, Three Book of the Month Club Books, the bestsellers from months after publishing, were submitted to him for criticism. And for final designing and editing. And in the publishing literature world, I know there is no one so well established and looked up to as Mr. Uzell. And I've gone into considerable length in regard to this because the following portion of Mr. Uzell's letter has made me so enthusiastic. And Mr. Uzell says, I spent last evening with the manuscript. I knew, of course, what the document was. But on reading the additional chapters and surveying the job as a whole, I found myself deeply moved. At times full of amazement, almost incredibly. And during most of the reading, I was extremely sympathetic. My feeling at the moment is that you should certainly hold onto the production and distribution of this volume if you can. For she ought to go far, wide, and high. And net those concerned a neat profit. You have here an extremely urgent problem. You have a successful defiance of medicine. You have a religious story. You have a deeply human story. And lastly, you have a whole flock of happy endings. My God! I do not know what else you could want. For a good book. And I believe in this book most emphatically. And it is interesting, you saw, and Hank says, you know, I understood better now the enthusiasm, I mean, that Mr. Uzell wrote to Hank about your enthusiasm in your talks with me about this work. I thought you were exaggerating somewhat. But now, I have joined the choir, invisible. I want to thank you for your attention and your attendance. And thank you very, very much.