AA Book Club

Real People of the Big Book - looking at the individuals behind aa folklore: Edwin T. "Ebby" Thacher (1896-1966), who passed the message of recovery to Bill: "My musing was interrupted by the telephone. The cheery voice of an old school friend asked if he might come over.  He was sober . It was years since I could re member his coming to New York in that condition. I was amazed. Rumor had it that he had been committed for alcoholic insanity. I wondered how he had escaped... In a matter of fact way he told how two men had appeared in court, persuading the judge to suspend his commitment. They had told of a simple religious idea and a practical program of action. That was two months ago and the result was self-evident. It worked! He had come to pass his experience along to me—if I cared to have it. I was shocked, but interested. Certainly I was interested. I had to be, for I was hopeless. Big Book page 9-10 Ebby relapsed before Bill began writing the Big Book and struggled...

  Tuesday AA Literature Post -  Watch Joe McQ of Joe and Charlie give a chalk talk on Step Eight out of the Big Book:

  Sobriety Meme of the Week:

  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) Reprinted from the October 23, 1939, Cleveland Plain Dealer with permission. [3 of 6 articles] Alcoholics Anonymous Makes Its Stand Here by ELRICK B. DAVIS October 24, 1939 Cleveland Plain Dealer In two previous articles, Mr. Davis told of Alcoholics Anonymous, an organization of former dri...

There are several passages which alcoholics are encouraged to think of staying sober permanently or long term, not merely One Day at a Time . Big Book: "Wait for the end of the spree, or at least for a lucid interval. Then let his family or a friend ask him if he wants to quit for good and if he would go to any extreme to do so." Page 90, Working With Others "Suppose, however, that your husband fits the description of number two. The same principles which apply to husband number one should be practice. But after his next binge, ask him if he would really like to get over drinking for good." Page 112, To Wives "Should it happen again [the husband loses his job], regard it in a different light. Maybe it will prove a blessing! It may convince your husband he wants to stop drinking forever." Page 116, To Wives "Assume on the other hand that father has, at the outset, a stirring spiritual experience. Overnight, as it were, he is a different man...

  Sobriety Meme of the Week:

  AA history and literature together - read Bill's 1948 Grapevine article on Tradition Eight: Tradition Eight Throughout the world AAs are twelfth-stepping with thousands of new prospects a month. Between one and two thousand of these sick on our first presentation; past experience shows that  most of the remainder will come back to us later on. Almost entirely unorganized and completely non professional, this mighty spiritual current is now flowing from alcoholics who are well to those who are sick. One alcoholic talking to another; that's all. Could this vast and vital face-to-face effort ever be professionalized or even organized? Most emphatically, it could not. The few efforts to professionalized straight twelfth Step work have always failed quickly. Today, no AA will tolerate the idea of paid "AA therapists" or "organizers."  Nor does any AA like to be told just how he must handle that  new prospect of his. No, this great life-giving stream can nev...