The famous blue “Big Book” of Alcoholics Anonymous turns 70 this month and will probably pass the mark of 30 million copies sold later this year.
In addition to discovering that the first edition copies were actually red, with a little research I found out that books from the original first printing of 5000 are going anywhere from $4,000 to $40,000 depending on the condition. One of the rarest copies is kept in a safe by the Alcoholics Anonymous archivist in Akron, OH; it is actually signed by both founder and author Bill W. and co-founder Dr. Bob and rests along side the original manuscript.
The forward of the first edition printing reads:
”We, of Alcoholics Anonymous, are more than one hundred men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. To show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book.”
I wonder if Bill W. and Dr. Bob had any idea from those original one hundred men and women AA would grow into an international organization with over 2 million members and that the Big Book would become one of the most influential books of the 20th century? Now that’s a big 12th step!
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Great to know about the Big Book’s birthday. You’re right, great 12 step work!
)
I’d like to blog about this post on my blog. Okay?
and thanks for dropping by!
I’m reading a biography on Mrs. Marty Mann by Sally Brown and David R. Brown. Marty Mann was the first women in AA. She was invited to read a copy of the manuscript of the Big Book and that is what brought her into AA and recovery after numerous attempts with internists, psychologists, sanitariums and the like in both the US and UK had failed. She went on to found NCEA (now NCADD) to “fight the stigma and disease of alcoholism.” This bio also offers a great history of the disease and its treatment.