Alcoholics Anonymous, Rare Pre-Publication "Multilith" Edition

Newark, New Jersey: Works Publishing Co., n.d. [1939], 80 letter-size multilith pages, (title page/foreword [n.p.], primary text [pp. 1-76], "Alcoholic Foundation"/order statement [n.p.]; personal stories [pp. 1-79], comb-bound in card stock cover, the front cover stamped "Eddie DeSodier".

11" x 8-1/2"

Notes: This year marks the 80th anniversary of the publication of Alcoholics Anonymous, the basic text of the group of the same name, which is widely regarded as one of the most important self-help books of the 20th century. The copyright names William G. Wilson (1895-1971) - "Bill W." - as its author, although there were many additions, revisions and amendments to his basic text by dozens of the earliest members of the organization.
A.A. dates its beginning very precisely to June 10, 1935, when Dr. Robert Smith ("Dr. Bob"; 1879-1950) - drank one last beer after a night of being gradually weaned off alcohol by Bill W. They had met a month earlier when Bill W. was on a business trip to Akron, Ohio and found himself tempted to drink. Instead, he used his connections with the Oxford Group, a Christian fellowship, to find a fellow alcoholic to talk to about his plight. Their mutual support enabled them to remain sober, and together they sought out other alcoholics to help, gradually incorporating some of the principles of the Oxford Group into their nascent self-help group. By late 1937, the two A.A. Groups - in Dr. Bob's Akron and Bill W.'s New York - had about 40 sober members, and they decided to publish a "textbook" of their program of recovery. The preliminary text was written primarily by Bill W., and about 100 multilith copies were made for distribution among the early members for their input, as well as for sale to raise money for the manuscript's publication.

As with so much of early A.A. history - as might be expected from an organization founded upon anonymity and made up of autonomous groups - there are conflicting details on this multilith edition, often called the "original manuscript". The initial printing was probably sometime between early December, 1938 and mid-January, 1939, and while the initial print run is often said to be 100 copies, the exact number is not known. There were at least two, and perhaps as many as four, separate printings. All copies contain the primary text followed by personal stories of the early members, though not all contain the two separate index pages for these sections; similarly, "Alcoholics" is misspelled "Alcoholic's" on the title page of some copies (including the present lot, which does not contain the indices, and contains "ghost" impressions of the comb binding-holes on some pages showing that it is certainly a second-generation printing).

The final text as printed in the first edition of April 1939 differs significantly from this "original manuscript". The heavily annotated multilith belonging to Bill W., which served as the publication text and contains the changes agreed upon by dozens of early A.A. members, sold last year for $2.4 million to Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay. A few other copies have surfaced - most notably those of early A.A. members James Burwell ("Jim B.", 1898-1974) and Clarence H. Snyder ("Clarence S.", 1902-1984) - but they remain quite rare, with perhaps less than twenty still in existence.