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 d**h 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 pa** 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
cla** 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 561 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 a**ets 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 pa**ed.
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.