Overview

Alcoholics Anonymous is one of the most significant self-help books of the twentieth century with an estimated thirty-seven million copies sold, translated into seventy languages. Released in 1939, the Big Book, as it is commonly known, has spawned a number of recovery communities around the world and remains a vibrant tool in introducing a plan of recovery from addiction in all its manifestations. It has been forty years since the last scholarly history of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.), Ernie Kurtz’s Not God, published in 1979. Since then, all books that focus on one or more aspects of A.A. history have relied almost exclusively on the anecdotal stories told long after the fact by Bill Wilson and number of other early members, accounts that have proved at times to be inaccurate. Writing the Big Book is the result of eleven years of in-depth research into the formative years of A.A. Granted unprecedented access to the GSO archive, among others, the author reveals the inner workings of the early Fellowship, the conflicts, personalities, failures, and dispels myths of canonical texts such as Dr. Bob and the Good Old Timers, Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, and A Brief History of the Big Book. Relying, whenever possible, on primary, real-time documents, the author pulls various threads into a remarkably coherent narrative. While the story focuses primarily on the eighteen months between October 1937 (when a book was first proposed) and April, 1939 (when Alcoholics Anonymous was published), relevant events both before and shortly after those dates are fully incorporated. Across the span of these eighteen months, the wealth of available archival materials allows a week-by-week accounting of events, which is presented here through an amazing amount of previously unreported details in a comprehensive and compelling story.

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9781949481556

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Publishers Weekly Writing the Big Book: The Creation of A.A.William H. Schaberg. Central Recovery, $40 (800p) ISBN 978-1-949481-28-0 Rare books dealer Schaberg (The Nietzsche Canon) provides an admirably exhaustive, albeit intimidatingly lengthy, look at the writing of Alcoholic Anonymous's foundational 1939 text--known colloquially as The Big Book, and in full as Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism. Through years of archival research, Schaberg uncovered a tremendous amount of first-hand documentation related to the book's composition. He demonstrates a detective's skill in using this evidence to examine accounts by major A.A. figures and identify contradictions, often traceable to what he calls the mythmaking tendencies of A.A.'s charismatic and garrulous founder Bill Wilson, the Big Book's primary author. Among other things, Schaberg shows that the creation of A.A.'s most famous tenet, the 12 Steps, was likely not the sudden, inspired event [Wilson] so frequently reported, but a much more... deliberate affair. Elsewhere, Schaberg demonstrates equal skill as a literary archeologist in excavating past drafts of the book, finding traces of a planned but unwritten chapter about the potential alcoholic still evident in the finished text, and showing how a much-debated internal A.A. decision--to use the word God, but not more creed-specific language--shaped the Steps. The main caveat for general readers will be this book's monumental scale; nonetheless, Schaberg's work is a landmark study. (Oct.) KEYS TO RECOVERY Writing the Big Book: The Creation of A.A. Written by William H. Schaberg. Published by Central Recovery Press BOOK REVIEW All I can say is if you are in any way connected to A.A. or want to be, READ this book. It is an incredible source of information from the early days of A.A. and how the Big Book was written. The detailed retelling - based on primary document research - of the events from Sept 1937 to April 1939. We have all heard bits and pieces of how the Big Book was written, and what was originally going to be included, and the debates over the content, as it was being written. William H. Schaberg puts all the pieces together pulled from the vast resources found in the A.A. archives. An enjoyable and easy read. Do not let the size of this book scare you. Each area of the Big Book is outlined and explained, with factual detail. He introduces us to the importance of Hank Parkhurst's influence on the text. William makes sure to include where all this information was obtained from, he took special attention to separate exact quotes and lightly modified. I feel that the author took extreme measures to give us the REAL re-telling of the creation of the Big Book. Thank you, William H. Schaberg, for taking so much time, energy and loving respect in the writing of this vital book. My favorite part was The original Twelve Steps. This book would make a great gift. I loved this book and I can't wait to share al the great facts I learned while reading this book. Five Big Shiny Sober Stars.

Bill Schaberg does a great service to the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous with his exhaustive examination of archival documents, separating myth from fact. The result is a clearer picture of the beginnings of A.A. and the development of the Big Book, along with a rich and compelling portrait of Bill W. Less myth produces a much better story. - The Very Rev. Ward B. Ewing, D.D., Trustee and past Chair of the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous, Retired Dean and President of the General Theological Seminary, New York; Like a good suspense novel, this book captures the day-to-day struggles these few intrepid men encountered over those years - Linda Farris Jurtz, Professor Emerita, Eastern Michigan University; Schaberg's study of Alcoholics Anonymous is a true gift to A.A. and its membership, past, present, and future. - Kevin Hanlon, co-creator of the documentary Bill W.

Author Information

William Schaberg graduated from Fairfield University in 1966 with a degree in history. He began his business career in the local family business and ended it 39 years later as the Vice-President of Corporate Development and Communications for the American Reprographics Company. Today, he is the proprietor of Athena Rare Books, a firm specializing in first edition copies of works important to the history of ideas.

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