program in the first few years. If Dr. Bob had been the one to get
very long time. I can find nothing that indicates that Bill did
anything unsavory to get his image the way it ended up. The Big Book
was approved by the entire membership at the time, so Dr. Bob must
have had a chance to speak up about just where his story was. I
the Fellowship than Dr. Bob. I think Bob's primary role was keeping
confidante.
(glennccc@sbcglobal.net)
Let's not over analyze and forget the obvious! There
are people who can sing beautifully but cannot play a
musical instrument. Their musical skills extend to
their mouths but not to their fingers, because it seems
to involve training a different part of the brain.
Dr. Bob was someone who could talk to you, and explain
to you orally what you had to do to get sober, better
than anybody else in early AA. But if you look at the
few things that he wrote, once you put a pen in his
hand, he kind of froze up, and what came out was kind
of wooden and not very well expressed.
There have been many people in AA since then who were
wonderful sponsors, and could stand up and give
marvelous leads, but were not good writers. We've
got a heck of a lot of good people like that.
But Bill W. was real writer. I don't know how he
managed to write all those hundreds of beautiful
letters to people. And if you look at "As Bill
Sees It," you can see how, even in the middle of
an ordinary little letter that he just tossed off
in a few minutes, there would often be buried
passages of profound spiritual wisdom.
You can't criticize other people for not having
that kind of extraordinary skill. And it would
have been foolish in the extreme to play silly
games and insist on all of the first forty AA's
being given exactly 4.1 pages to write in the
first 164 pages of the Big Book, no more, no less.
But this posed a problem when it came time to write
the Big Book. Bill W. certainly couldn't have
written Dr. Bob's story for him, that would have
been arrogant and rude. So he had to concentrate
in the book on the part that he had a right to talk
about, about Ebby's visit to him, and how the
scales fell from his eyes and he found the path
of healing for himself, when Ebby told him what
he had learned from the Oxford Group.
And then he gave Dr. Bob the place of honor at
the head of the story section, but kept the
part Dr. Bob had to write fairly small, so Dr.
Bob would be able to handle it.
It would be great if Dr. Bob had also had the
writing skills to explain exactly what he was
thinking and feeling when he and Bill W. first
met, oh boy would it be great, but he didn't
have those skills.
Nevertheless, when we put up pictures of the
founders, we give Bill W. and Dr. Bob equal
honor, with their portraits side by side.
That's the important symbolism. Nobody tries
to make the portrait of Bill W. bigger than
the portrait of Dr. Bob.
Let's just be grateful that we had several
people in early AA who did have remarkable
writing skills, like Bill W. and Richmond Walker
and Ralph Pfau (Father John Doe) and Ed Webster.
While also being grateful for the far greater
number of people who knew how to be effective
sponsors, and how to deal with suffering
alcoholics on a one on one basis. We needed
ALL of them in order for us to receive God's
grace in its fullness.
Along with the guy who shows up an hour in
advance of every meeting and unlocks the building
and makes the coffee, and says hello to you when
you walk in, and is GLAD to see you. And you
can count on him, and you know he's going to be
there. And when you're hurting, he saves your
life too, just as much as the others.
In a little piece called the Tools of Recovery
(http://hindsfoot.org/tools.html) which is often
read at meetings in my part of Indiana, the sixth
tool is Service, and it says simply, "Service
helps our personal program grow. Service is
giving in A.A. Service is leading a meeting,
making coffee, moving chairs, being a sponsor,
or emptying ashtrays. Service is action, and
action is the magic word in this program."
When I make coffee for a meeting, or help
move chairs, or empty ashtrays, I do not regard
it as a lower and inferior kind of service work.
I do everything on that little list in the
Tools of Recovery, and everything else that
people ask me to do. All service is of equal
honor in the eyes of God. I don't go around
giving leads as a conference speaker on a
regular basis because there are people in the
program far more talented than I am in that
area. My own story really isn't very interesting.
But I treasure and honor the people we have who
DO have good stories, and ARE good at giving
leads in front of big conferences.
Ralph Pfau (Father John Doe), the Catholic
priest from Indiana, found that because the
Catholic Church in those days required priests
to wear clerical collars at all times, that he
couldn't do a good job of making twelve step
calls. All alcoholics could see was his
clerical collar, and they couldn't identify
with him, and they found it very threatening
and frightening. He desperately wanted to do
something which would be of service to his
fellow alcoholics, and finally turned to leading
weekend spiritual retreats and then to writing
his Golden Books, not because he thought that
being a writer was more important or more
glamorous, but because it was the only kind of
service work that he seemed to be any good at!
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++++Message 3136. . . . . . . . . . . . California Bill
From: ckbudnick . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/3/2006 2:01:00 PM
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In Message 3129, "Significant February dates in A.A. History "
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/3129
it says:
Feb 14, 2000 - William Y., "California Bill"
dies in Winston Salem, NC.
Who was William Y. "California Bill" and what is his
significance in AA history?
Thanks.
Chris
Raleigh, NC
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++++Message 3137. . . . . . . . . . . . Pat McC - Philadelphia longtimer
From: Shakey1aa@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/3/2006 9:16:00 AM
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Pat McC. of Audubon, NJ, formerly of Yeadon, Pa. died Feb 1st with 57 years
of sobriety. He came in thru the 4021 clubhouse and was going to be one of
the 5 longtime speakers on Sunday 3/12/06 3 P.M. when the club will
celebrate
their 60th anniversary.Another AA who showed us that long term sobriety is
possible a day at a time with the help of a Higher Power and following the
suggestions of our program.
Yours in Service,
Shakey Mike G.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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++++Message 3138. . . . . . . . . . . . From We Agnostics..Professor Langley
From: Gene . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/3/2006 2:44:00 PM
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As part of my continuing project to share esoteric refrences in the
Big Book from Bill W's idiom of the time...(1930's)
I'm sending this about the refrence to professor Langley's flying
machine Chapter 4, Page 51; We Agnostics.
"Professor Langley's airplane sank in the Potomic River".....
From We Agnostics, (P 51 Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous)
Bill W. was moved by the story of a man's dreams and the ridicule of
the press and the fact that a man could eventually fly.
Samuel Pierpont Langley
Samuel Pierpont Langley (1834 - 1906) is often used as a contrast to
the Wrights. Unlike the two brothers, Langley was highly-educated and
had more than ample funding in support of his efforts to develop an
airplane. His stature at Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
lent great credibility to his efforts to build an airplane, as did
his success with the unmanned aerodromes. In particular, his
Aerodrome No. 6 flew 4,200 feet at about 30 mph on November 28, 1896.
This unmanned tandem-wing craft employed a lightweight steam engine
for propulsion. The wings were set at a distinct dihedral angle so
that the craft was dynamically stable, capable of righting itself
when disturbed by a sideways breeze. There was no method of steering
this craft, nor would it have been easy to add any means to control
the direction the craft flew.
From the success of No. 6, Langley was able to convince the War
Department (a.k.a. Department of Defense) to contribute $50,000
toward the development of a person-carrying machine. The Smithsonian
contributed a like sum towards Langley's efforts. Charles Manley
developed an extraordinary radial-cylinder internal combustion engine
that developed 52 horsepower for the man-carrying Great Aerodrome.
Langley felt it would be safest to fly over water, so he spent almost
half of his funds constructing a houseboat with a catapult that would
be capable of launching his new craft.
The Great Aerodrome might have flown if Langley had chosen a more
traditional means of launching the craft from the ground. The pilot
still would have lacked any means of steering the plane, and so faced
dangers aplenty. But it might have at least gotten into the air.
Unfortunately, Langley chose to stick with his 'tried-and-true'
approach of catapult launches. The plane had to go from a dead stop
to the 60 m.p.h. flying speed in only 70 feet. The stress of the
catapult launch was far greater than the flimsy wood-and-fabric
airplane could stand. The front wing was badly damaged in the first
launch of October 7, 1903. A reporter who witnessed the event claimed
it flew "like a handful of mortar." Things went even worse during
the
second launch of December 9, 1903, where the rear wing and tail
completely collapsed during launch. Charles Manley nearly drowned
before he could be rescued from the wreckage and the ice-covered
Potomac river.
Needless to say, the Washington critics had a field day. The Brooklyn
Eagle quoted Representative Hitchcock as saying, "You tell Langley
for me ... that the only thing he ever made fly was Government
money." Representative Robinson characterized Langley as "a
professor ... wandering in his dreams of flight ... who was given to
building ... castles in the air."
The War Department, in its final report on the Langley project,
concluded "we are still far from the ultimate goal, and it would seem
as if years of constant work and study by experts, together with the
expenditure of thousands of dollars, would still be necessary before
we can hope to produce an apparatus of practical utility on these
lines." Eight days after Langley's spectacular failure, a sturdy,
well-designed craft, costing about $1000, struggled into the air in
Kitty Hawk, defining for all time the moment when humankind mastered
the skies.
In spite of 18 years of well-funded and concerted effort by Langley
to achieve immortality, his singular contribution to the invention of
the airplane was the pair of 30-lb aerodromes that flew in 1914.. He
died in 1906 after a series of strokes, a broken and disappointed man.
More>>>>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(photo)
A very short history of the airplane.
Professor Langley was a respected astronomer. He invented the
bolometer, an instrument that measures small amounts of microwave or
infared radiation by detecting changes in electrical resistance on a
thin heat sensitive metal conductor. (This will be on the test) His
name lives on in a unit of energy flux. At the end of the 19th
Century he was head of the Smithsonian Institute, which in those days
was a serious scientific organization. He started to experiment with
model airplanes. These experiments culminated in a couple of Steam
Models that earned him a permanent place in pre Wright Brothers
aviation.
These successes lead to his being asked by the Department of War to
construct a man carrying air craft. It didn't fly. Twice the
Aerodrome, as he called it, was catapulted off the roof of a house
boat and twice it fell into the Potomac river "Like a handful of wet
mortar." Soon after he died, some say broken by the ridicule with
which the press treated the event. And the airplane languished in the
Smithsonian.
In the meantime the Wright Brothers flew, and patented, their
airplane. They were quite aggressive about pursuing what they
considered violations of this patent, and set American aviation back
by years. Glen Curtiss was one of the individuals who wanted to avoid
paying the Wright's considerable royalties and he embarked on a
series of lawsuits that was to drag on for years.
In about 1914, in an effort to show that the Wright Brothers didn't
make the first airplane capable of flight he approached the
Smithsonian with an offer to see if he could make the remains of the
Aerodrome fly. The Smithsonian who stood to recover from shame and
ridicule agreed to this. But the Aerodrome was fundamentally unsound,
so Curtiss took it upon himself to make many modifications. He
eventually achieved limited flight. Among the changes were,
replacing the motor and the two primitive propellers mounted behind
the forward wing with a tractor prop powered by a more modern engine.
He also gave up on catapulting it off a houseboat and fitted it with
floats. Orville Wright was particularly insistant that Langley had
the center of pressure in the wrong places and that Curtiss applied
the Wright Bros discoveries to rerig the wing bracing.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
(photo)
THIS PICTURE SHOWS AN EARLY CURTISS INCARNATION
http://www.rense.com/general12/cig.htm
Gene from Westchester
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++++Message 3139. . . . . . . . . . . . Bill''s debt from stock market
collapse
From: gbaa487 . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/3/2006 11:08:00 PM
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On page 4 of Bill's story he tells us of the collapse of the market.
My understanding is that it put him in about $650,000 (today's value)
in debt. How and when did he get out of that debt?
Thanks......this is the best AA info site.
george,nyc
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++++Message 3140. . . . . . . . . . . . First lesbian or gay AA member?
From: nancy miller . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/3/2006 8:14:00 PM
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Who was the first lesbian or gay man in the program?
I heard this women set up an organization that studies
alcoholism. Who was she ???
Nancy M
Thanks
________________________________
(This is with respect to the discussion over whether
Florence R. of Westfield N.J. or Jane S. in Akron was
the first woman to get sober in AA.)
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++++Message 3141. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: 100 Hundred Men and Women?
From: merton m. . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/4/2006 1:12:00 AM
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Hi Art,
I enjoyed this. The only techno is that Florence
lived in Westfield NJ rather than NY. Only people
like us care about such details.
When I was archives chair for N. Jersey 15 years
ago we photographed the beautiful home as well as
extensive photos of 9-11 Hill St and 17-19 William St.
in Newark, Hanks 1936 home at 575 Wyndum (sp?) in
Teneck where Lois diary said the Jersey drunks met
at times (carried into LR I believe), Hank and
Kathleen's much larger home at 344 N. Fullerton
in Montclair where they moved in 1937 and where
Bill and Lois stayed for a few months after
leaving the Heights. (along with Jim B.).
All these photos still hang on huge displays in
the intergroup office and are carried around the
country with the traveling committee.
All the Best,
-merton
ArtSheehan wrote:
The "and women" part turned out to be Florence R of
NY (as Merton noted) whose story is "A Feminine
Victory" (Marty M didn't arrive until after the
manuscript had been distributed). Florence R, was
the first woman in AA and was sober around a year
when she wrote her story. She later moved to Washington
DC to join up with Fitz M (whose story is "Our
Southern Friend") to help start AA there. Sadly,
Florence returned to drinking (Fitz M was called
to the morgue to identify her).
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++++Message 3142. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: First woman was Jane S., not
Florence
From: Tom Hickcox . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/6/2006 5:24:00 PM
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Diz and Art have presented answers to the question referred to in the
subject line of this email.
They appear to me at least to be addressing two separate but related
questions.
Perhaps if we could agree on a question first, then it could be addressed.
The question could be, "Who was the first woman working the program of
what
became Alcoholics Anonymous to attain a year's sobriety?"
While some of my contemporary colleagues think you are still a bit wet
behind the ears at one year, it was an awful long time for our Old Timers,
whose sobriety was measured in months.
That is the question; what is the answer?
Tommy H in Baton Rouge
.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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++++Message 3143. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: First woman was Jane S., not
Florence
From: mertonmm3 . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/7/2006 3:47:00 AM
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>Hi Art,
In GSO Archives the early members were given 1 page questioneers to
fill out which included self reported sobriety date, occupation, ect.
I specifically recall one that Florence presumably submitted. Post 64
on this site (by this sites founder) places Florence's date of entry
at March, 1937. This sound accurate but I'm missing my transcript of
this. A specific inquiry to NY regarding this questioneer will verify
the accuracy or inaccuracy as to the date if GSO responds. It would be
easiest to obtain from the microfische.
As you know Florence made contact with AA through her non-alcoholic
husband who was a friend and buisness associate of Bill's.
All the best,
-merton
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++++Message 3144. . . . . . . . . . . . San Francisco Bay area history
From: Trysh Travis . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/6/2006 10:05:00 PM
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I am interested in finding out about the history of Bay-area 12-Step
culture during the late 1970s. I am curious about the growth of AA and
other organizations in San Francisco and Oakland, but also in
surrounding counties, especially Napa, Sonoma, and Mendocino. This part
of the country has a reputation for "crunchy" and New Age-y
recovery,
but I'm not sure what that reputation is based on. I'd be grateful for
any sources folks can direct me to.
Thanks in advance.
Trysh Travis
ttravis@wst.ufl.edu (ttravis at wst.ufl.edu)
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++++Message 3145. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: First lesbian or gay AA member?
From: Sally Brown . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/7/2006 8:43:00 PM
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Hi, Nancy - I think you must be referring to Marty Mann (see below), who
founded the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD) when
she had 5 years' sobriety. She was not the first woman to come to AA, but
she was the first to achieve long-term sobriety. She arrived in AA in April
1939.
Also, she was lesbian. However, Dave (co-author of our biography of her) and
I never looked into whether she was the first LGBT. I think there may have
been one or two gay men before her, but I'd be surprised if there were
another lesbian. Maybe this posting will produce historical information for
all of us.
Shalom - Sally
Rev Sally Brown coauthor: A Biography of
Mrs. Marty Mann
Board Certified Clinical Chaplain The First Lady of Alcoholics
Anonymous
United Church of Christ
www.sallyanddavidbrown.com
1470 Sand Hill Road, 309
Palo Alto, CA 94304
Phone/Fax: 650 325 5258
Email: rev.sally@att.net
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++++Message 3146. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: First lesbian or gay AA member?
From: ArtSheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/8/2006 12:02:00 PM
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Hi Nancy
Source abbreviations: (12and12)Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,
(AACOA)AA Comes of Age, (BW-FH) Bill W by Francis Hartigan, (DBGO) Dr
Bob and the Good Oldtimers, (MMM) Mrs Marty Mann by Sally and David
Brown, (PIO)Pass It On.
The first homosexual AA member likely entered the Fellowship in 1937
("year two" on the "AA calendar") in Akron, OH.
It's discussed in the
12and12 Tradition 3 essay but you'd be hard pressed to discover it.
Its
specifics are obscured. The 12and12 Tradition 3 essay states:
"A newcomer appeared at one of these groups, knocked on the door and
asked to be let in. He talked frankly with that group's oldest member.
He soon proved that his was a desperate case, and that above all he
wanted to get well. "But," he asked, "will you let me join
your group?
Since I am the victim of another addiction even worse stigmatized than
alcoholism, you may not want me among you. Or will you?"
"One of these groups" referred to Akron #1 in Ohio and the
"oldest
member" was Dr Bob. The "addiction even worse stigmatized than
alcoholism" had nothing at all to do with drugs. Bill W later speaking
at an open meeting of the 1968 General Service Conference described
the prospect's "addiction" as "sex deviate."
The member was likely
homosexual. The language used by Bill to describe him was the language
of the time in the latter 1960s.
Guidance on what to do on the matter came from Dr Bob asking, "What
would the Master do?" The prospect was admitted (DBGO 240-241, also
the pamphlet "The Co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous" pg 30).
The
member is then described in the 12and12 Tradition 3 essay as:
"Overjoyed, the newcomer plunged into Twelfth Step work. Tirelessly he
laid AA's message before scores of people. Since this was a very early
group, those scores have since multiplied themselves into thousands.
Never did he trouble anyone with his other difficulty. AA had taken
its first step in the formation of Tradition Three."
I do not know who this member was or whether he had his story in the
1st edition Big Book. Oddly though, this Akron, OH member's
circumstances are often erroneously intermingled with an incident that
occurred in New York 8 years later in 1945. The NY incident involved a
prominent, early homosexual member, Barry L, and an unknown homosexual
member who created quite a stir upon arrival.
Barry L (author of the book "Living Sober" discussed later
below) was
likely the first male homosexual member of the Fellowship in New York.
The book "Pass It On" describes his calling Bill W from the 41st
St
clubhouse in NYC to tell Bill of the arrival of "a black man who was
an ex-convict with bleach-blond hair, wearing women's clothing and
makeup." The man also admitted to being a "dope fiend."
When asked
what to do about it, Bill W posed the question, "did you say he was a
drunk?" When answered "yes" Bill replied "well I
think that's all we
can ask" (BW-FH 8, PIO 317-318).
"Pass It On" goes on to state that "although he soon
disappeared
(repeat "soon disappeared" for emphasis) the prospect's
presence
created a precedent for the 3rd Tradition." Anecdotal accounts
erroneously say that the black man, in women's clothing, went on to
become one of the best 12th Steppers in NY. Prior postings to AAHL
even went so far as giving him the name "Veronica" and claiming
his
drug was heroin. It's a myth - again as stated in "Pass It
On" "he
soon disappeared." Fragments of the 1945 story in New York, which
mentions "dope fiend" are intermingled with the 12and12
Tradition 3
essay, which occurred in Ohio, and mentions "an addiction" and
"plunged into 12th Step work." It has created one of the most
persistent myths in AA.
Marty M was the first lesbian member of AA. On April 11, 1939, Marty,
at age 35, attended her first meeting at Bill W's home at 182 Clinton
St. For the prior 15 months, she was a charity patient at Bellevue
Hospital in NYC and the Blythewood Sanitarium in Greenwich, CT (under
the care of Dr Harry Tiebout). Dr Tiebout gave her a manuscript of the
Big Book and arranged for Marty to go to the meeting. Upon her return
to Blythewood, she told fellow patient, Grenville (Grennie) C "we are
not alone." Marty later established an AA Group at the Sanitarium.
(BW-FH 8, 125-126, AACOA 3, 18-19, PIO 210-213, MMM 111-123)
Sally and David Brown's excellent biography "Mrs Marty
Mann" provides
substantial details on Marty and her relationship with Priscilla P
(who along with Marty and others started the AA Grapevine in June
1944). Their book also notes that Marty briefly returned to drinking
somewhere in between the latter 1950s to early 1960s. It was a well
kept secret in NY and in the NCA.
Nancy O, in her biographies of Big Book story authors, wrote that in
order to protect the work she was doing during a period of heavy
anti-gay bias, Marty never revealed her lesbianism except to Bill (her
sponsor) and other close friends. Her long-time lesbian partner,
Priscilla P, was once a glamorous art director at Vogue Magazine and
was the 5th woman Marty brought into AA.
Barry L's involvement in the book "Living Sober" (noted
earlier above)
is an interesting story. Published in 1975, the book had a bit of a
tortuous history. According to Bob P's unpublished manuscript of AA
history from 1955 to 1985, around 1968, the Board discussed the need
for a pamphlet for sober old-timers, and the need to point out
"traps"
or "danger signals." Out of this grew a proposal for literature
to be
developed around the topic, "How We Stay Sober."
In 1969 it was assigned to a professional writer. After nearly 2 years
of work, the draft was rejected. The sense that it needed such drastic
revision led to it being started from scratch by Barry L, a seasoned,
skillful freelance writer and consultant for GSO.
Barry negotiated a flat fee for the project. After 4 1/2 years he came
up with a simple and practical manual on how to enjoy a happy,
productive life without drinking. "Living Sober" proved to be
quite
popular and after it sold nearly a million copies, Barry felt he
should have been compensated more generously and receive some sort of
royalty. AAWS and the General Service Board declined. Barry threatened
legal action, but never followed through.
As an item of further interest, not long ago the mark-up manuscript of
the editorial changes for the 1st Ed Big Book was auctioned off at
over a million and a half dollars. The manuscript was given to Barry L
as a gift by Lois W.
Cheers
Arthur S
-----Original Message-----
From: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of nancy miller
Sent: Friday, February 03, 2006 7:15 PM
To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com
Cc: nancy miller
Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] First lesbian or gay AA member?
Who was the first lesbian or gay man in the program?
I heard this women set up an organization that studies
alcoholism. Who was she ???
Nancy M
Thanks
________________________________
(This is with respect to the discussion over whether
Florence R. of Westfield N.J. or Jane S. in Akron was
the first woman to get sober in AA.)
Yahoo! Groups Links
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++++Message 3147. . . . . . . . . . . . Early gay member Barry L. ("Living
Sober" author)
From: Wendi Turner . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/7/2006 7:19:00 PM
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I don't know he was the very "the first" gay member
but I do know this man claims to be the member who
was asked to champion "Gay Meetings" by Bill Wilson...
his name was Barry L. and also the author of
Living Sober.
You can hear his talk online at www.xa-speakers.org>
_________________________
Moderator's note:
See Message 3146 from Arthur Sheehan for more details
about Barry L.'s life and contributions to AA:
http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/3146
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++++Message 3148. . . . . . . . . . . . Sylvia K.
From: edgarc@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/9/2006 4:02:00 AM
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Is it true that Sylvia Kaufmann (Keys to the Kingdom) was urged
to return to Chicago and start AA there with Earl Treat after her
visit to Akron and her professed desire to stay with the founders?
According to the story I was told, Sylvia was gorgeous, rich,
divorced, and adoring and the AA ladies of Akron felt it would be
far better for all if she did her good deeds elsewhere.
______________________________
Moderator: see Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age p. 22,
where a different story is told, and for a photo of Earl Treat,
see the second photo on
http://hindsfoot.org/mnfound1.html
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++++Message 3149. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Bill W and Dr. Bob
From: Mel Barger . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/7/2006 4:19:00 PM
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From: "Mel Barger"
(melb at accesstoledo.com)
Hi All,
I went to my first meeting early in October, 1948,
in California and was given a loan copy of the
Big Book right then. The woman who loaned it
to me urged me to read the personal stories first
and then go back to the first part. Bill D.'s story
(AA #3) wasn't in the first edition, and appeared in
the second edition only because Bill W. recorded
him out in Akron and pretty much put together his
story.
I gathered that Bill D. wasn't all that excited about
the book idea in the beginning, but Bill W. realized
that Bill D.'s role was important and should be in
the book.
I think it made sense to have Dr. Bob's story lead
the personal story section. But I've always believed
that Bill's Story is the best and strongest of all and
deserves to lead off the entire book.
Mel Barger
____________________________________
From: James Flynn
(jdf10487 at yahoo.com)
The trend of worshiping the first part of the Big
Book (the first 164 pages) might have started
happening around the same time that Bill W. had
to remove stories from the back of the book
because the "recovered' alkie who was the subject
of the story relapsed.
Jim F.
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++++Message 3150. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: 1948 and 1950 Statement of
Principles
From: ArtSheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/4/2006 10:07:00 AM
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Hi Shakey - this is a long reply
The information you seek is qualified in the source book as "according
to Clarence" or "Clarence believed." Clarence did much for
which he
should be complimented, but he also had another side that is not very
complementary. I'd suggest that Clarence S was to Bill W what Al Gore
is to George Bush today. No matter what the subject, it will be
interpreted in a sinister manner. This is not to say that anyone is
lying, rather it is what bias and antagonism produce.
The unpublished manuscript of Bob P contains the excerpts below which
are revealing. They are, for the most part independently, confirmed by
other authors in "Dr Bob and the Good Oldtimers" and "Pass
It On."
Chapter 1 - When AA "Came of AGE"
All was not harmony within the Fellowship, however, which accounted
for a smaller-than-expected attendance at the St. Louis Convention. AA
had grown up in two places simultaneously - Akron and New York, each
with its own co-founder. So it is not surprising that there was a
feeling of separateness - some would say a schism - between the
Akron/Cleveland axis and the New York axis. The Akronites had clung
longer to the Oxford Groups and were more conservative generally.
Bill, the visionary, on the other hand pushed ahead with the writing
and publishing of the Big Book, the establishing of a
"Headquarters"
office and, in the late 1940s, a plan for a General Service
Conference.
Dissent against this idea was led by Clarence S of Cleveland. With the
help of Henrietta Seiberling (who now lived in New York), an "Orthodox
Group" was formed to mobilize opposition to the Conference plan among
AA groups nationwide. They took pride in the fact they would have
nothing to do with Bill W, the "Headquarters" office or any form
of
organization of AA. Their most vigorous efforts took place after the
first trial conference was held in 1951. The groups and members with
the "Orthodox Group" view chose, not surprisingly, to boycott
the St.
Louis gathering where the Conference idea was to be ratified.
Chapter 2 - The General service Board
... in 1946, Bill submitted to the trustees a "Code of Traditions
for
General Headquarters," and followed it up with a barrage of memoranda
supporting its various points. These included ideas for fiscal
policies, and specifically the creation of a sound reserve fund; the
place of The AA Grapevine in the structure; and staff representation
at the Board and committee meetings, with a voice in policy decisions.
A 1947 memo added the most controversial proposal of all, that of
having a General Service Conference to provide a linkage between the
groups and the trustees as well as the headquarters office; and to
bring the trustees into regular contact and direct relationship with
the society.
The Board's reaction was at first defensive and then outright negative
to Bill's suggestions. Most of the trustees wanted to keep the status
quo. They were confident of their ability to handle whatever situation
might arise and saw no need to change. Bill, spurred into greater
urgency by Dr Bob's illness and feeling personal frustration, pressed
harder, resulting in hot and bitter debates. As Nell recounts, "Bill
felt they wanted him to be only a spiritual symbol, confined to a kind
of ivory tower where he couldn't stir things up." The trustees
resented Bill's over-aggressiveness.
Bill himself confesses, "Typically alcoholic, I turned passive
resistance into solid opposition. A serious rift developed between me
and the alcoholic members of the Board, and the situation became worse
and worse. They resented my sledgehammer tactics. As the tempest
increased, so did my blistering memorandums. One of them was an
amazing composition which finished with this astonishing sentence:
"When I was in law school, the largest book I studied was one on
trusts. I must say, gentlemen, that it was mostly a long and
melancholy account of the malfeasances and misfeasances of boards of
trustees.' I had written this to the best friends I had in the world,
people who had devoted themselves to AA and to me without stint.
Obviously I was on a dry bender of the worst possible sort.
This sizzling memorandum nearly blew the Foundation apart." The
nonalcoholic trustees were "dumbfounded," and the old-timer
alcoholic
trustees hardened their opposition to the Conference plan. Four of the
trustees even submitted letters of resignation; they were: LeRoy
Chipman, Leonard Harrison, Bernard Smith and Horace C. Bill wrote each
of them a conciliatory letter of apology, and the resignations were
either withdrawn or simply not accepted at the next Board meeting.
In fact, the only support on the Board for the Conference was from
Bernard Smith. However, as the dispute wore on into 1950, Chairman
Leonard Harrison - even though he did not see the necessity for a
Conference - appointed a trustees' committee to study the matter with
Bernard Smith as Chairman! Bill characterized this as "a most
magnanimous and generous act on Leonard's part. Bern Smith had
"a
remarkable faculty for persuasion and negotiation." It took him only
two meetings to convince the committee to "give the Conference a
try."
The full Board voted to go along. (See Chapter 11 for a fuller history
of the Conference.)
Chapter 3 - Groups in the US: How They Began and How They Grew
East Central Region - Akron, Cleveland and Ohio
The members of the new Cleveland group were uncertain what to call
themselves and discussed several suggested names. "None of them seemed
fitting," remembered Abby C, "so we began to refer to ourselves
"as
Alcoholics Anonymous" after the title of the Big Book.
(On this tenuous fact Clarence S based a lifelong claim that he was,
in reality, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. He became perhaps the
most controversial character in AA. He turned against Bill and aroused
the Cleveland contingent to accuse Bill and Dr Bob of "getting
rich"
off the Big Book and the generosity of Mr. Rockefeller - which they
had to disprove with a certified audit of their financial affairs.
Clarence tried to organize a nationwide revolt against the Conference
idea and threatened, unsuccessfully, to secede. He criticized Bill and
the "New York office" vitriolically at every opportunity. Bill
steadfastly refused to hold a grudge against him and in their
correspondence "used soft words to turn away wrath."
Much later, when they met at the International Convention in Toronto,
they actually spent several hours together, reminiscing. However,
Clarence, a popular speaker on the Steps and the recovery program,
continued to raise hackles wherever he appeared by calling press
conferences in which he was photographed full face with his full name,
holding the Big Book which he claimed he wrote, and identifying
himself as the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. He asserted he was not
bound by AA's Traditions because they were written later - and written
by Bill. Clarence S moved to Florida in retirement, where he remained
extremely active until his death in 1984.
Chapter 9 - General Service Office - The AA Archives
Bill had some underlying reasons for his intense interest in archival
matters, beyond that expressed in AA Comes of Age namely, so that "the
basic facts of AA's growth and development never can become
distorted." By 1955, the facts were already being distorted by
Clarence S and other oldtimers who were attempting to undermine Bill's
place in AA's history. So Bill wanted the records available. Also Bill
was visionary; he saw the sweep and scope of the Fellowship he had
helped found and foresaw its significance as a social movement to be
studied by future historians.
Chapter 10 - The AA Grapevine
He [Bill W] obviously loved the Grapevine. He gave it his full
personal support from its very beginning, and whenever he spoke of it
or wrote about it, it was with great enthusiasm and affection. And he
devoted his time and effort unstintingly to helping it. For example,
in 1946, he wrote a six-page single-space typewritten document in the
form of a letter to attorney Royal Shepard about the corporate
structure of the Grapevine and the concepts behind it. ... There were
several reasons for this special interest. Bill perceived early that
this was a means for him to communicate directly with the Fellowship
without going through the Board of Trustees - especially when he was
at odds with them on a given issue. And he used the Grapevine for this
purpose frequently and effectively. The Traditions were born and grew
to their present form in a series of articles in the latter 1940s,
beginning with a 1946 piece entitled "Twelve Points to Assure Our
Future."
In 1950, a time when a majority of the Trustees seemed opposed to the
idea, Bill and Dr Bob wrote in the Grapevine suggesting that the AA
membership as a whole should take over, through a General Service
Conference ...
Chapter 11 - The General Service Conferences
Never did the co-founder and de facto leader of a social movement ever
try so early and so fiercely to relinquish his power and authority as
did Bill W. Incredibly, only twelve years after the birth of
Alcoholics Anonymous, nine years after the formation of the Alcoholic
Foundation and eight years after the Big Book was published, Bill
wrote the first of several controversial and even explosive memos
proposing a General Service Conference. The story of his battle with
the trustees over the issue for the next three years is related in
Chapter 2 on the General Service Board. But finally in 1950, the
trustees voted reluctantly to "give the Conference a try."
Chapter 12 - The Big Book and Other AA Literature
Bill said that more than 100 titles were considered for the book. The
title that appeared on the Multilithed copies was "Alcoholics
Anonymous." The first documented use of the name is in a letter from
Bill to Willard Richardson dated July 15, 1938, in which he uses it to
refer to the movement. Among the other possible titles considered for
the book were: "One Hundred Men," "The Empty Glass,"
"The Dry Way,"
"The Dry Life," and "The Way Out."
The choices quickly boiled down to "The Way Out," favored by
most in
Akron, and "Alcoholics Anonymous," favored by most in New York.
Bill
asked Fitz M, who lived near Washington, DC, to check both titles
through the library of congress. Fitz wired back to the effect that
the Library of Congress had 25 books entitled "The Way Out," 12
entitled "The Way," and none called "Alcoholics
Anonymous." That
settled the matter. The title of the book quickly became the name of
the Fellowship as well. Clarence S later called himself the founder of
Alcoholics Anonymous, basing his claim on his being the first to use
the name for a group. Which he probably was. But the fact is, the book
Alcoholics Anonymous was already off the press, and the name had been
used a year earlier to refer to the Fellowship as a whole.
Cheers
Arthur
-----Original Message-----
From: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
Shakey1aa@aol.com
Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2006 8:43 PM
To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com
Cc: hvyver@kvalley.com
Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] 1948 and 1950 Statement of Principles
My sponsor told me about AA having a "statement of principles" in
1950. He tells me they originally came out in 1948 but that no proof
is obtainable from New York. Does anyone know about this?
The statement of principles of 1948 is in Appendix G in Mitch K's book
"How it Worked."
Does anyone know why these were replaced by the 1950 statement of
principles. Do they give General Service more power?
Why does Royal S., the attorney who incorporated the Grapevine, on pg
199 say the trustees suppressed the statement of 1948?
t/y Shakey Mike G.
Shakey1aa@aol.com (Shakey1aa at aol.com)
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++++Message 3151. . . . . . . . . . . . God as we understand Him
From: Archie Bunkers . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/8/2006 12:38:00 AM
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This is an excerpt from http://hindsfoot.org/AkrSpir.pdf
"William James, stripped of verbiage, says that
we should believe in God AS WE UNDERSTAND HIM."
Is William James the source of the Big Book
phrase "God as we understand him"??
Archie B.
________________________________
From the moderator (Glenn C., South Bend, Indiana)
The passage which Archie quotes is from one
of the four pamphlets we possess which
were written by the early AA people in Akron.
They are "A Manual for Alcoholics Anonymous,"
"Second Reader for Alcoholics Anonymous,"
"A Guide to the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics
Anonymous," and this one, which is entitled
"Spiritual Milestones in Alcoholics Anonymous.
In the passage in question, which says "William
James, stripped of verbiage, says that we should
believe in God AS WE UNDERSTAND HIM,"
it seems to me that the early AA's in Akron
believed, not that William James wrote that line,
but instead were agreeing that adding "as we
understand Him" to the references to God in the
twelve steps was in agreement with James' belief
that people of different personality types needed
different types of spirituality and different kinds
of conceptions of God.
"God as we understand Him" was not a quote
from James however, as they give it in this
pamphlet. The pamphlet says that "God as we
understand Him" was a shorter way of saying what
James was saying in the long quotation which they
give from him, where James says "Religion shall
mean for us the feelings, acts and experiences of
individual men in their solitude, so far as they
apprehend themselves to stand in relation to
whatever they may consider the divine."
The early Akron AA people were clearly saying
in that pamphlet that Christians who followed the
teaching of the epistle of James, skeptics and
freethinkers like Immanuel Kant, Catholics who
followed the teachings of St. Augustine the great
Doctor of the Church, Jews, Muslims, and
Buddhists, could all join together in following the
twelve steps and could understand why following
these spiritual guides to action could lead us to
the higher spiritual life.
Here is that particular section of the pamphlet,
which is Part IV, giving the entire text of that
section, so the group can read in context what
the early Akron AA people believed:
_____________________________________
"Spiritual Milestones in Alcoholics Anonymous"
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