History of Alcoholics Anonymous
Nearly two centuries before the advent of Alcoholics Anonymous, John Wesley established Methodist penitent bands, which were organized on Saturday nights, the evening on which members of these small groups were most tempted to frequent alehouses.
[2] In post-Prohibition 1930s America, it was common to perceive alcoholism as a moral failing, and the medical profession standards of the time treated it as a condition that was likely incurable and lethal.
[3] Those without financial resources found help through state hospitals, the Salvation Army, or other charitable societies and religious groups.
Buchman was a minister, originally Lutheran, then Evangelist, who had a conversion experience in 1908 in a chapel in Keswick, England, the revival center of the Higher Life movement.
AA gained an early warrant from the Oxford Group for the concept that disease could be spiritual, but it broadened the diagnosis to include the physical and psychological.
[9] In 1955, Wilson wrote: "The early AA got its ideas of self-examination, acknowledgment of character defects, restitution for harm done, and working with others straight from the Oxford Group and directly from Sam Shoemaker, their former leader in America, and from nowhere else.
In AA, the bondage of an addictive disease cannot be cured, and the Oxford Group stressed the possibility of complete victory over sin.
[12][13][14] Back in America, Hazard went to the Oxford Group, whose teachings were eventually the source of such AA concepts as "meetings" and "sharing" (public confession), making "restitution", "rigorous honesty" and "surrendering one's will and life to God's care".
He became converted to a lifetime of sobriety while on a train ride from New York to Detroit after reading For Sinners Only[15] by Oxford Group member AJ Russell.
Thacher visited Wilson at Towns Hospital and introduced him to the basic tenets of the Oxford Group and to the book Varieties of Religious Experience (1902) by American psychologist and philosopher William James.
There Wilson socialized after the meetings with other ex-drinking Oxford Group members and became interested in learning how to help other alcoholics achieve sobriety.
Silkworth believed Wilson was making a mistake by telling new converts of his "Hot Flash" conversion and thus trying to apply the Oxford Group's principles.
[32] Subsequently, during a business trip to Akron, Ohio, Wilson was tempted to drink and realized he must talk to another alcoholic to stay sober.
For 17 years, Smith's daily routine was to stay sober until the afternoon, get drunk, sleep, then take sedatives to calm his morning jitters.
Thus a new prospect underwent many visits around the clock with members of the Akron team and undertook many prayer sessions, as well as listening to Smith cite the medical facts about alcoholism.
[45][46] At the end of 1937, after the New York separation from the Oxford Group, Wilson returned to Akron, where he and Smith calculated their early success rate to be about five percent.
Wilson then made plans to finance and implement his program on a mass scale, which included publishing a book, employing paid missionaries, and opening alcoholic treatment centers.
In 1938, Bill Wilson's brother-in-law Leonard Strong contacted Willard Richardson, who arranged for a meeting with A. Leroy Chapman, an assistant to John D. Rockefeller Jr. Wilson envisioned receiving millions of dollars to fund AA missionaries and treatment centers, but Rockefeller refused, saying money would spoil things.
Instead, Wilson and Smith formed a nonprofit group called the Alcoholic Foundation and published a book that shared their personal experiences and what they did to stay sober.
Much of Bill W.'s input for the book was written in 1938 at the Calumet Building in Newark, New Jersey at offices of Honor Dealers, a business of early New York member Hank P., using the secretarial services provided by Ruth Hock.
[54][55] When Wilson had begun to work on the book, and as financial difficulties were encountered, the first two chapters, Bill's Story and There Is a Solution were printed to help raise money.
Hank devised a plan to form "Works Publishing, Inc.", and raise capital by selling its shares to group members and friends.
[56] At first there was no success in selling the shares, but eventually Wilson and Hank obtained what they considered to be a promise from Reader's Digest to do a story about the book once it was completed.
On the strength of that promise, AA members and friends were persuaded to buy shares, and Wilson received enough financing to continue writing the book.
[61] Edward Blackwell at Cornwall Press agreed to print the book with an initial $500 payment, along with a promise from Bill and Hank to pay the rest later.
The transaction left Hank resentful, and later he accused Wilson of profiting from Big Book royalties, something that Cleveland AA group founder Clarence S. also seriously questioned.
[65] After the third and fourth chapters of the Big Book were completed, Wilson decided that a summary of methods for treating alcoholism was needed to describe their "word of mouth" program.
Some postulate the chapter appears to hold the wife responsible for her alcoholic husband's emotional stability once he has quit drinking.
Morgan R., recently released from an asylum, contacted his friend Gabriel Heatter, host of the popular radio program We the People, to promote his newly found recovery through AA.
The interview was a success, and Hank P. arranged for 20,000 postcards to be mailed to doctors announcing the Heatter broadcast and encouraging them to buy a copy of Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story Of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered From Alcoholism[71] Book sales and AA popularity also increased after positive articles in Liberty magazine in 1939[72] and the Saturday Evening Post in 1941.
