AA Book Club

From  Stories of Recovery.org , a bio of Hank Parkhurst, driving force behind the Big Book and author of To Employers:                                       Hank Parkhurst (1895-1954) Hank was the first alcoholic to become sober in New York, following Bill Wilson. Hank was an executive of Standard Oil of New Jersey who lost his job due to alcoholism. Bill worked with Hank at Towns Hospital. After becoming sober, Hank started “Honors Dealers,” a co-op company based in Newark, New Jersey, that bought bulk automotive supplies and sold them directly to small Mom and Pop gas stations. Hank gave Bill office space and made  Ruth Hock  available for dictation. Ruth typed out the first draft copy of the Big Book. When funds ran low, Hank and Bill formed Works Publishing, Inc., which sold 600 shares at $25 each to finance the writing and publis...

  A helpful breakdown of Step Four out of the Big Book:

  A little historical background on an influence on the Big Book:

From AA Book Club's original study guide The Twelve Concepts for World Service for Dummies - An Introduction to AA's Forgotten Third Legacy: "In these pages we hope to provide an introduction to the Twelve Concepts for those who are not yet familiar with them. A full and complete examination is not possible merely through writing, for these principles are not a theory, they are meant to be practiced. But we can provide a simplified (we hope not 'dumbed down') explanation of the Concepts - a Cliff's Notes version, if you will." Available for free download at these links: The Twelve Concepts for Dummies or The Twelve Concepts for Dummies More original studies of AA literature at   AABookClub.org   (Alternate site:  AABookClub.wixsite.com/aabc  )

  AA literature and history together - Read Bill W.'s 1948 Grapevine article on Tradition Six: Tradition Six    The sixth of our Twelve Points of AA Tradition is deemed so important that it states at length the relation of the AA movement to money and property.    This Tradition declares in substance that the accumulation of money, property, and the unwanted personal authority so often generated by material wealth comprise a cluster of serious hazards against which an AA group must ever be on guard.    Tradition Six also enjoins the group never to go into business nor ever to lend the AA name or money credit to any "outside" enterprise, no matter how good. Strongly expressed is the opinion that even clubs should not bear the AA name; that they ought to be separately incorporated and managed by those individual AAs who need or want clubs enough to financially support them.    We would thus divide the spiritual from the material...

  Fill in the blanks on this quote from the 12&12: “THIS is the Step that separates the ________ from the ______ .” So declares a well-loved clergyman who happens to be one of A.A.'s greatest friends. He goes on to explain that any person capable of enough willingness and honesty to try repeatedly Step Six on all his faults—without any reservations whatever—has indeed come a long way spiritually, and is therefore entitled to be called a man who is sincerely trying to grow in the image and likeness of his own Creator. A) the Big Book 'Thumpers' from the Meeting Makers B) the 'recovered' from the 'recovering' C) the men from the boys D) the wheat from the chaff (Answer is on page 63)

Throwback Thursday AA history post - The six articles published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer in late 1939 led to tremendous growth in Cleveland's AA Group #3, but also got Clarence kicked out: That fall Clarence smuggled freelance reporter Elrick Davis into meetings of that first Greater Cleveland group and Mr. Davis wrote a series of articles on A.A. which were published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer. This resulted in over 500 calls for help to be tended by the only 13 active members... Many members were upset by this workload and by the surreptitious manner in which it was done. So they voted Clarence out of A.A. (which was something that could be done at the time).   (aa.cle.org) Alcoholics Anonymous Makes Its Stand Here       [First of Six Articles] By ELRICK B. DAVIS Much has been written about Alcoholics Anonymous, an organization doing major  work in reclaiming the habitual drinker. This is the first of a series describing the  work t...