FOREWORD TO SECOND EDITION
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Figures given in this foreword describe the Fellowship as it was in 1955.
SINCE the original Foreword to this book was written in 1939, a wholesale
miracle has taken place. Our earliest printing voiced the hope "that every
alcoholic who journeys will find the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous at
his destination. Already," continues the early text "twos and threes and
fives of us have sprung up in other communities."
Sixteen years have elapsed between our first printing of this book and the
presentation in 1955 of our second edition. In that brief space, Alcoholics
Anonymous has mushroomed into nearly 6,000 groups whose membership is far
above 150,000 recovered alcoholics. Groups are to be found in each of the
United States and all of the provinces of Canada. A.A. has flourishing
communities in the British Isles, the Scandinavian countries, South Africa,
South America, Mexico, Alaska, Australia and Hawaii. All told, promising
beginnings have been made in some 50 foreign countries and U. S.
possessions. Some are just now taking shape in Asia. Many of our friends
encourage us by saying that this is but a beginning, only the augury of a
much larger future ahead.
The spark that was to flare into the first A.A. group was struck at Akron,
Ohio, in June 1935, during a talk between a New York stockbroker and an
Akron physician. Six months earlier, the broker had been relieved of his
drink obsession by a sudden spiritual experience, following a meeting with
an alcoholic friend who had been in contact with the Oxford Groups of that
day. He had also been greatly helped by the late Dr. William D. Silkworth, a
New York specialist in alcoholism who is now accounted no less than a
medical saint by A.A. members, and whose story of the early days of our
Society appears in the next pages. From this doctor, the broker had learned
the grave nature of alcoholism. Though he could not accept all the tenets of
the Oxford Groups, he was convinced of the need for moral inventory,
confession of personality defects, restitution to those harmed, helpfulness
to others, and the necessity of belief in and dependence upon God.
Prior to his journey to Akron, the broker had worked hard with many
alcoholics on the theory that only an alcoholic could help an alcoholic, but
he had succeeded only in keeping sober himself. The broker had gone to Akron
on a business venture which had collapsed, leaving him greatly in fear that
he might start drinking again. He suddenly realized that in order to save
himself he must carry his message to another alcoholic. That alcoholic
turned out to be the Akron physician.
This physician had repeatedly tried spiritual means to resolve his alcoholic
dilemma but had failed. But when the broker gave him Dr. Silkworth's
description of alcoholism and its hopelessness, the physician began to
pursue the spiritual remedy for his malady with a willingness he had never
before been able to muster. He sobered, never to drink again up to the
moment of his death in 1950. This seemed to prove that one alcoholic could
affect another as no nonalcoholic could. It also indicated that strenuous
work, one alcoholic with another, was vital to permanent recovery.
Hence the two men set to work almost frantically upon alcoholics arriving in
the ward of the Akron City Hospital. Their very first case, a desperate one,
recovered immediately and became A.A. number three. He never had another
drink. This work at Akron continued through the summer of 1935. There were
many failures, but there was an occasional heartening success. When the
broker returned to New York in the fall of 1935, the first A.A. group had
actually been formed, though no one realized it at the time.
A second small group promptly took shape at New York, to be followed in 1937
with the start of a third at Cleveland. Besides these, there were scattered
alcoholics who had picked up the basic ideas in Akron or New York who were
trying to form groups in other cities. By late 1937, the number of members
having substantial sobriety time behind them was sufficient to convince the
membership that a new light had entered the dark world of the alcoholic.
It was now time, the struggling groups thought, to place their message and
unique experience before the world. This determination bore fruit in the
spring of 1939 by the publication of this volume. The membership had then
reached about 100 men and women. The fledgling society, which had been
nameless, now began to be called Alcoholics Anonymous, from the title of its
own book. The flying-blind period ended and A.A. entered a new phase of its
pioneering time.
With the appearance of the new book a great deal began to happen. Dr. Harry
Emerson Fosdick, the noted clergyman, reviewed it with approval. In the fall
of 1939 Fulton Oursler, then editor of Liberty, printed a piece in his
magazine, called "Alcoholics and God." This brought a rush of 800 frantic
inquiries into the little New York office which meanwhile had been
established. Each inquiry was painstakingly answered; pamphlets and books
were sent out. Businessmen, traveling out of existing groups, were referred
to these prospective newcomers. New groups started up and it was found, to
the astonishment of everyone, that A.A.'s message could be transmitted in
the mail as well as by word of mouth. By the end of 1939 it was estimated
that 800 alcoholics were on their way to recovery.
In the spring of 1940, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. gave a dinner for many of
his friends to which he invited A.A. members to tell their stories. News of
this got on the world wires; inquiries poured in again and many people went
to the bookstores to get the book "Alcoholics Anonymous.'' By March 1941 the
membership had shot up to 2,000. Then Jack Alexander wrote a feature article
in the Saturday Evening Post and placed such a compelling picture of A.A.
before the general public that alcoholics in need of help really deluged us.
By the close of 1941, A.A. numbered 8,000 members. The mushrooming process
was in full swing. A.A. had become a national institution.
Our Society then entered a fearsome and exciting adolescent period. The test
that it faced was this: Could these large numbers of erstwhile erratic
alcoholics successfully meet and work together? Would there be quarrels over
membership, leadership, and money? Would there be strivings for power and
prestige? Would there be schisms which would split A.A. apart? Soon A.A. was
beset by these very problems on every side and in every group. But out of
this frightening and at first disrupting experience the conviction grew that
A.A.'s had to hang together or die separately. We had to unify our
Fellowship or pass off the scene.
As we discovered the principles by which the individual alcoholic could
live, so we had to evolve principles by which the A.A. groups and A.A. as a
whole could survive and function effectively. It was thought that no
alcoholic man or woman could be excluded from our Society; that our leaders
might serve but never govern; that each group was to be autonomous and there
was to be no professional class of therapy. There were to be no fees or
dues; our expenses were to be met by our own voluntary contributions. There
was to be the least possible organization, even in our service centers. Our
public relations were to be based upon attraction rather than promotion. It
was decided that all members ought to be anonymous at the level of press,
radio, TV and films. And in no circumstances should we give endorsements,
make alliances, or enter public controversies.
This was the substance of A.A.'s Twelve Traditions, which are stated in full
on page 97d4e015d310dfe33503d024d3ce9e0a:/page/Section0070.xhtml of this book. Though none of
these principles had the force of rules or laws, they had become so widely
accepted by 1950 that they were confirmed by our first International
Conference held at Cleveland. Today the remarkable unity of A.A. is one of
the greatest assets that our Society has.
While the internal difficulties of our adolescent period were being ironed
out, public acceptance of A.A. grew by leaps and bounds. For this there were
two principal reasons: the large numbers of recoveries, and reunited homes.
These made their impressions everywhere. Of alcoholics who came to A.A. and
really tried, 50% got sober at once and remained that way; 25% sobered up
after some relapses, and among the remainder, those who stayed on with A.A.
showed improvement. Other thousands came to a few A.A. meetings and at first
decided they didn't want the program. But great numbers of these---about two
out of three---began to return as time passed.
Another reason for the wide acceptance of A.A. was the ministration of
friends---friends in medicine, religion, and the press, together with
innumerable others who became our able and persistent advocates. Without
such support, A.A. could have made only the slowest progress. Some of the
recommendations of A.A.'s early medical and religious friends will be found
further on in this book.
Alcoholics Anonymous is not a religious organization. Neither does A.A. take
any particular medical point of view, though we cooperate widely with the
men of medicine as well as with the men of religion.
Alcohol being no respecter of persons, we are an accurate cross section of
America, and in distant lands, the same democratic evening-up process is now
going on. By personal religious affiliation, we include Catholics,
Protestants, Jews, Hindus, and a sprinkling of Moslems and Buddhists. More
than 15% of us are women.
At present, our membership is pyramiding at the rate of about twenty per
cent a year. So far, upon the total problem of several million actual and
potential alcoholics in the world, we have made only a scratch. In all
probability, we shall never be able to touch more than a fair fraction of
the alcohol problem in all its ramifications. Upon therapy for the alcoholic
himself, we surely have no monopoly. Yet it is our great hope that all those
who have as yet found no answer may begin to find one in the pages of this
book and will presently join us on the high road to a new freedom.