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[00:00:04.900 – 00:00:15.100] Some say that the age of chivalry is gone, that knighthood no

[00:00:15.100 – 00:00:16.300] longer flowers.

[00:00:16.300 – 00:00:26.500] But we who come to this Southland as your guests know

[00:00:26.500 – 00:00:27.100] better.

[00:00:27.100 – 00:00:37.400] We can’t say any past things

[00:00:37.400 – 00:00:45.300] about Southern hospitality, for we have no words to describe it.

[00:00:45.300 – 00:00:55.800] And when you combine Southern ho-hospitality with AA hospitality in

[00:00:55.800 – 00:01:05.900] these marvelous confines where we are, the result is an occasion

[00:01:05.900 – 00:01:13.100] which shall always be stored away as an imperishable memory.

[00:01:13.100 – 00:01:22.800] Such have been these happy hours to all of us, especially to us Outlanders.

[00:01:22.800 – 00:01:33.000] And as always the case, we are bound to fetch away more than we have brought.

[00:01:33.000 – 00:01:43.100] Someday, I suppose, the

[00:01:43.100 – 00:01:53.900] real story, the true story of Alcoholics Anonymous will be put to paper, perhaps

[00:01:53.900 – 00:01:55.300] generations hence.

[00:01:55.300 – 00:02:05.400] But when that story is finally told, its theme,

[00:02:05.400 – 00:02:15.900] I am sure, will be this: that Alcoholics Anonymous was a society

[00:02:15.900 – 00:02:25.900] of immense virtue, of perfec-perfect construction and

[00:02:25.900 – 00:02:37.500] great power, composed entirely of extremely weak and

[00:02:37.500 – 00:02:39.000] fallible individuals.

[00:02:39.000 – 00:02:48.200] That, to my mind, is the true story of Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:02:48.200 – 00:02:58.900] Far as we know, our fallibilities persisted long beyond the day of sobriety.

[00:02:58.900 – 00:03:08.900] And as time goes on, we marvel on this cathedral of the spirit

[00:03:08.900 – 00:03:12.100] which only God could have wrought.

[00:03:12.100 – 00:03:22.300] It used to scare me a lot when I

[00:03:22.300 – 00:03:32.300] heard speakers rise in AA meetings to say that the book Alcoholics Anonymous was an

[00:03:32.300 – 00:03:42.900] inspired document, to hear clergymen come in and say, “This is of God.” Because

[00:03:42.900 – 00:03:53.600] when I heard such words, I saw the fallibility, the immense

[00:03:53.600 – 00:04:03.200] weakness, of those of us who engaged in the composition of that book.

[00:04:03.200 – 00:04:12.100] With great intimacy, I knew all those who wrote the story.

[00:04:12.100 – 00:04:22.400] And with still more intimacy, I knew myself, my

[00:04:22.400 – 00:04:23.800] immense weakness.

[00:04:23.800 – 00:04:35.400] So, like AA itself, the book turned out to be a

[00:04:35.400 – 00:04:45.600] very wonderful document composed by an infinitely weak

[00:04:45.600 – 00:04:52.300] and well-meaning crowd of ex-drunks.

[00:04:52.300 – 00:05:02.900] Last night, we reveled a little bit in some of these yarns on

[00:05:02.900 – 00:05:13.000] the past, and we jumped over the book episode because I wanted to reserve its lesson for

[00:05:13.000 – 00:05:14.100] you here tonight.

[00:05:14.100 – 00:05:21.800] Because it illustrates what the-

[00:05:21.900 – 00:05:30.900] Great virtue there is in this society arising out of that great heap of failure.

[00:05:30.900 – 00:05:41.500] And also because the composition of the book illustrates

[00:05:41.500 – 00:05:51.300] the purpose of service, which it is now my main motive to make clear to everyone.

[00:05:51.300 – 00:05:57.300] To make clear to everyone the idea that AA must function.

[00:05:57.300 – 00:06:04.600] That it’s not just a matter of face-to-face talk with that drunk.

[00:06:04.600 – 00:06:14.600] Other things have to be done to, uh, bring that about, to enable this message

[00:06:14.600 – 00:06:16.100] to be carried.

[00:06:16.100 – 00:06:26.300] I hear people say of the general service concept and that body

[00:06:26.300 – 00:06:35.400] of delegates will– which will have to be elected and sent up to New York every year, “Oh, this is too hard.

[00:06:35.400 – 00:06:38.900] It’s too much trouble.

[00:06:38.900 – 00:06:49.000] Let’s keep AA simple.” But I fear those who would keep it as simple

[00:06:49.000 – 00:06:54.200] as that have not a prudent eye on the future.

[00:06:54.200 – 00:07:04.600] And I assume that they have no idea of the difficulties which God has helped us surmount,

[00:07:04.600 – 00:07:10.700] to surmount in creating the services that we already have.

[00:07:10.700 – 00:07:20.800] Let’s take another look at that book deal as a venture in service

[00:07:20.800 – 00:07:30.800] and as sure proof of the great power of

[00:07:30.800 – 00:07:37.100] very fallible people when granted the gift of grace.

[00:07:37.100 – 00:07:47.000] I told you, remember, that in nineteen thirty-eight we encouraged some of Mr.

[00:07:47.000 – 00:07:56.900] Rockefeller’s friends to create this foundation, this great receptacle for the rich to deposit their money in.

[00:07:56.900 – 00:08:06.900] That, praise God, we were spared the perils of professionalism and of problems and

[00:08:06.900 – 00:08:09.100] of money because Mr.

[00:08:09.100 – 00:08:19.200] Rockefeller, under the guidance of God, I firmly believe, declined to put any money in it, and so

[00:08:19.200 – 00:08:20.400] did his friends.

[00:08:20.400 – 00:08:31.300] Therefore, this movement, by his act and the act of all of those people whose

[00:08:31.300 – 00:08:36.100] money we sought, saved this movement then and there.

[00:08:36.100 – 00:08:45.700] But here was the foundation, empty of money, but still holding meetings.

[00:08:45.700 – 00:08:55.900] Meetings began in nineteen thirty-eight, and they became commiseration meetings in which our new

[00:08:55.900 – 00:09:04.200] friends told us each time how sorry they were that we hadn’t got any money together.

[00:09:04.200 – 00:09:12.200] You remember I explained last night how our grandiose ideas had evaporated.

[00:09:12.200 – 00:09:23.400] This idea of a lot of paid missionaries and, uh, that chain of drunk tanks that I was going to finance all on Wall Street, well, that

[00:09:23.400 – 00:09:24.300] had evaporated.

[00:09:24.300 – 00:09:32.000] But we still clung to the notion that we had to have some sort of book.

[00:09:32.000 – 00:09:42.800] We felt that if we didn’t record our experiences in such a book, if we didn’t set out clearly

[00:09:42.800 – 00:09:52.900] the principles of recovery, which we felt had been discovered in their proper application to us, that this whole message would

[00:09:52.900 – 00:09:53.600] get garbled.

[00:09:53.600 – 00:10:02.200] And surely all the drunks in the world weren’t going to come to Akron, Ohio, or New York City to get well.

[00:10:02.200 – 00:10:05.900] We owed that much to the million who didn’t know.

[00:10:05.900 – 00:10:16.200] We owed that much to a correct relationship with the world outside so that people might at least dream

[00:10:16.200 – 00:10:17.400] about what had happened.

[00:10:17.400 – 00:10:19.300] We had to have a book.

[00:10:19.300 – 00:10:29.300] Early in 1938, I had composed in rough what were the first two chapters of–

[00:10:29.300 – 00:10:32.200] to be the first two chapters of that AA book.

[00:10:32.200 – 00:10:36.400] They were in mimeograph form.

[00:10:36.400 – 00:10:43.600] They were actually attached to the prospectus that we carried to the very rich who we supposed

[00:10:43.700 – 00:10:45.800] Folks were going to finance that foundation.

[00:10:45.800 – 00:10:49.000] But nothing happened.

[00:10:49.000 – 00:11:01.100] Then came a meeting of the foundation at which Frank Amos, one of our good friends, still a trustee, said,

[00:11:01.100 – 00:11:11.900] “Bill, why don’t you take those two proposed book chapters down to my friend at Harper’s,

[00:11:11.900 – 00:11:22.100] Gene Exum, the religious editor, and see what he thinks about it?” Well, I’d never written anything before.

[00:11:22.100 – 00:11:31.400] With trepidation, I lugged in the mimeographed copy of those chapters.

[00:11:31.400 – 00:11:39.400] Exum looked them over, and right away he brightens up.

[00:11:39.400 – 00:11:41.300] He said, “Why, Mr.

[00:11:41.300 – 00:11:44.500] Wilson,” he said, “that’s rather interesting.

[00:11:44.500 – 00:11:56.400] Could you, uh, do a whole book like this?” So I lied valiantly and said, “Oh, of course, of course.” Then

[00:11:56.400 – 00:12:07.400] he intimated that I might have something like $1,500 as an advance royalty if I could complete the book by the spring of 1939,

[00:12:07.400 – 00:12:10.500] it then being late summer of ’38.

[00:12:10.500 – 00:12:15.600] Oh, that was great news.

[00:12:15.600 – 00:12:20.800] And by this time, $1,500 looked like 15,000.

[00:12:20.800 – 00:12:24.500] Lois was still in that department store.

[00:12:24.500 – 00:12:28.000] I did get her out later, however, quite a lot later.

[00:12:28.000 – 00:12:38.200] Well, as I walked away from Harper’s, my spirits

[00:12:38.200 – 00:12:39.500] began to droop again.

[00:12:39.500 – 00:12:50.100] I thought to myself, “Well, now, if we take this $1,500 grubstake

[00:12:50.100 – 00:12:56.200] and eat that up while this book is being written, that’ll be an advance royalty.

[00:12:56.200 – 00:13:01.500] So for quite a while after the book comes out, there may not be any more royalty.

[00:13:01.500 – 00:13:04.300] And what are we going to eat on then?

[00:13:04.300 – 00:13:14.500] And besides, supposing the magazines and newspapers began to print pieces, a lot of inquiries came in.

[00:13:14.500 – 00:13:24.500] How would we hire the help to answer them?” And then the idea burst upon me.

[00:13:24.500 – 00:13:29.400] Why don’t we drunks publish this book ourselves?

[00:13:29.400 – 00:13:33.100] The deuce with Harper’s.

[00:13:33.100 – 00:13:34.800] The deucenes with Mr.

[00:13:34.800 – 00:13:38.300] Rockefeller and his pious ideas about money.

[00:13:38.300 – 00:13:41.900] We drunks will become the publishers of this book.

[00:13:41.900 – 00:13:48.800] Well, at that time, I had a chum in AA by the name of Hank.

[00:13:48.800 – 00:13:54.300] Hank had been sober a year or two.

[00:13:54.300 – 00:14:04.600] He’d once been a prominent Standard Oil executive, and he was a promoter deluxe.

[00:14:04.600 – 00:14:07.600] So I go to Hank.

[00:14:07.600 – 00:14:16.300] Hank says, “Wonderful.” The next step, he and I walk into a stationery store.

[00:14:16.300 – 00:14:20.300] We buy a pad of stock certificates.

[00:14:20.300 – 00:14:30.300] We write across the top of these blank certificates, “Works Publishing, par

[00:14:30.300 – 00:14:40.400] value $25.” The idea of Works Publishing was that this book was to be the first of many great

[00:14:40.400 – 00:14:41.500] works, you see.

[00:14:41.500 – 00:14:44.500] Of course, only two chapters done, but never mind.

[00:14:44.500 – 00:14:52.500] So here was Works Publishing Company, $25 par value.

[00:14:52.500 – 00:15:02.700] And we began to carry these shares in the book not yet written to the local

[00:15:02.700 – 00:15:06.800] drunks around New York City and their immediate friends and relatives.

[00:15:06.800 – 00:15:15.700] Well, we hadn’t had so much experience up to then in soliciting money from drunks.

[00:15:15.700 – 00:15:23.100] And the drunks, to put it bluntly, gave us just one hell of a chill.

[00:15:23.100 – 00:15:25.600] They said, “What?

[00:15:25.600 – 00:15:27.900] What a nerve.

[00:15:27.900 – 00:15:30.100] What a promotion.

[00:15:30.100 – 00:15:40.300] For God’s sake, to buy stock in a book not yet written?” Well, we could see

[00:15:40.300 – 00:15:50.500] if we kept selling these certificates that that would mean a continuous meal ticket, and we might sell enough of those shares so as to get the money to print the book nine months

[00:15:50.500 – 00:15:51.000] hence.

[00:15:51.000 – 00:15:57.900] So the first effort at selling the shares at the Works Publishing Company was an awful bust.

[00:15:57.900 – 00:16:05.200] But as I say, Hank was a super promoter, and I spent years in Wall Street.

[00:16:06.400 – 00:16:14.200] And we said, “Well, these drunks are tough, tough customers, Hank, but, uh, there is some way on getting the pry on.

[00:16:14.200 – 00:16:24.200] Now, there’s some kind of a hook we could use.” So then we came back with the argument, “But look, Harper

[00:16:24.200 – 00:16:27.300] says that this is going to be a wonderful book.

[00:16:27.300 – 00:16:35.700] This conservative religious publishing house, Harper’s, they’re willing to put $1,500 up on this book.

[00:16:35.700 – 00:16:37.000] What’s the matter with you drunks?

[00:16:37.000 – 00:16:38.400] 25 bucks a share.

[00:16:38.400 – 00:16:40.800] In fact, you can buy it on installments.

[00:16:40.800 – 00:16:50.000] Five bucks a month, and Hank will collect the money while I’m writing, see?” No, no sale.

[00:16:50.000 – 00:16:51.200] No sale.

[00:16:51.200 – 00:17:01.300] Well, then we, uh, go around to a printer, and we find out something very wonderful from the promotion

[00:17:01.300 – 00:17:02.100] point of view.

[00:17:02.100 – 00:17:06.600] In those days, you know, the dollar was really worth something.

[00:17:06.600 – 00:17:16.800] And we found that you could get a book about the size of the one we projected printed for something around 35 cents a copy.

[00:17:16.800 – 00:17:26.800] So then we looked up in the New York Times Book Review, and we priced textbooks in there, and we found that the

[00:17:26.800 – 00:17:34.300] cheapest textbook you could get, this was to be no novel, of course, the cheapest one was three bucks.

[00:17:34.300 – 00:17:39.000] The most expensive one listed there was somewhere around five bucks.

[00:17:39.000 – 00:17:42.200] Ah, we said, “Now we got it.

[00:17:42.200 – 00:17:47.100] There’s millions in this.” Oh, very spiritual we were, I assure you.

[00:17:47.100 – 00:17:53.600] We print the damn book for 35 cents, and we sell them for $3.50.

[00:17:53.600 – 00:17:56.000] That’ll get the drunks.

[00:17:56.000 – 00:17:59.900] We can show them how we move carloads of these books.

[00:17:59.900 – 00:18:03.100] Print them for 35 cents.

[00:18:03.100 – 00:18:06.400] Direct mail, sure cure for drunks, $3.50.

[00:18:06.400 – 00:18:09.100] Can’t miss, though.

[00:18:09.100 – 00:18:15.400] Well, we go back with the works publishing shares again to the clients’ house.

[00:18:15.400 – 00:18:16.500] No sale.

[00:18:16.500 – 00:18:17.500] No sale.

[00:18:17.500 – 00:18:23.100] Meanwhile, Hank and I were getting in very bad odor.

[00:18:23.100 – 00:18:29.600] See, up to this time, I’d been talking about that hot flash of mine all the time.

[00:18:29.600 – 00:18:39.700] Folks had gotten me into kind of an ivory tower, and here I was around peddling stock certificates to eat on, in a book not yet

[00:18:39.700 – 00:18:40.100] written.

[00:18:40.100 – 00:18:51.300] So we said, “Well, there’s some way to fetch these stingy bums.” So

[00:18:51.300 – 00:18:55.000] we went up to the Reader’s Digest, Hank and I did.

[00:18:55.000 – 00:18:59.400] We go to the managing editor, Kenneth Payne.

[00:18:59.400 – 00:19:02.600] We said to Mr.

[00:19:02.600 – 00:19:07.000] Payne, “Well, here is the work that’s gone on.

[00:19:07.000 – 00:19:10.400] About 40 drunks sober.

[00:19:10.400 – 00:19:13.900] Not a great number, but Mr.

[00:19:13.900 – 00:19:16.100] Payne, a very significant number.

[00:19:16.100 – 00:19:21.600] This is one of the most fatal maladies that has ever afflicted mankind.

[00:19:21.600 – 00:19:25.000] Here is time elapsed on 40 cases.

[00:19:25.000 – 00:19:27.100] Besides, Mr.

[00:19:27.100 – 00:19:37.600] Payne, we have excellent approval in high quarters.” And we told him in a discreet way,

[00:19:37.600 – 00:19:41.800] confidentially, about our close friendship with John D.

[00:19:41.800 – 00:19:42.800] Rockefeller.

[00:19:42.800 – 00:19:49.300] And how I talked with Harry Emerson Fosdick, and he thought this was good.

[00:19:49.300 – 00:19:51.700] Mr.

[00:19:51.700 – 00:19:54.400] Payne, the managing editor, took fire.

[00:19:54.400 – 00:19:55.800] “Why,” he said, “Mr.

[00:19:55.800 – 00:20:00.900] Wilson,” he said, “this is just exactly the kind of thing the Reader’s Digest would like.

[00:20:00.900 – 00:20:10.900] We’d love to do a piece about your, uh, promising young society, one alcoholic talking to another.”

[00:20:10.900 – 00:20:12.700] All very dramatic.

[00:20:12.700 – 00:20:20.200] “Yes, we’ll put a feature right on it.” “Well,” we said, “please, Mr.

[00:20:20.200 – 00:20:21.700] Payne, not right now.

[00:20:21.700 – 00:20:32.000] This society is now preparing a book which will appear sometime next spring,

[00:20:32.000 – 00:20:42.200] along ’39, and we’d like to wait until

[00:20:42.200 – 00:20:52.300] the book is done because a piece in the Digest would bring in thousands of inquiries, and we need to have our method set down on

[00:20:52.300 – 00:20:55.800] paper.” So at this juncture, Mr.

[00:20:55.800 – 00:20:59.800] Payne going along with that, I said, “And Mr.

[00:20:59.800 – 00:21:10.200] Payne, in case your feature writer does a piece about this book or about this movement of ours, say in 1939,

[00:21:10.200 – 00:21:15.700] of course you’d mention our new book, wouldn’t you?” “Oh, yes,” he said.

[00:21:15.700 – 00:21:25.800] “When do you expect to have it done?” “Well, along around April, May 1939.” He said, “Fine, it’s a deal.” So then we go back to the drunks, and we

[00:21:25.800 – 00:21:26.800] say, “Now, look.”

[00:21:30.100 – 00:21:34.300] Now look, we print them for thirty-five cents.

[00:21:34.300 – 00:21:39.800] We sell them direct mail, sure cure for drunks, three fifty.

[00:21:39.800 – 00:21:44.400] Harper says it’s going to be a good book.

[00:21:44.400 – 00:21:54.600] And moreover, even if it’s a lousy book, that piece in the Reader’s Digest will move them out by carloads, drunks,

[00:21:54.600 – 00:21:59.400] and you’ll not only get your money back, you’ll double it, you’ll quadruple it.

[00:21:59.400 – 00:22:02.100] In fact, there must be millions in this.

[00:22:02.100 – 00:22:04.400] What about some Works Publishing shares?

[00:22:04.400 – 00:22:06.800] Twenty-five dollars a pop.

[00:22:06.800 – 00:22:15.400] And we began to peddle the stock, which meant that Lois and I began to eat again on the stockholders’ money.

[00:22:15.400 – 00:22:23.500] It meant that we hired little Ruthie Hock, our first secretary, you know, who was taking the dictation on the book.

[00:22:23.500 – 00:22:24.900] I couldn’t write it, of course.

[00:22:24.900 – 00:22:25.900] I had to talk it.

[00:22:25.900 – 00:22:33.100] Hank, he ate out of all this because he had to collect the money.

[00:22:33.100 – 00:22:43.800] And believe it or not, between September 1938 and April

[00:22:43.800 – 00:22:54.400] 1939, out of that little bunch of drunks and their friends, forty-nine of them all told, we actually sold

[00:22:54.400 – 00:22:59.700] $4,900 worth of Works Publishing stock.

[00:22:59.700 – 00:23:05.900] Stock in a book not yet written on which they would make millions.

[00:23:05.900 – 00:23:12.000] Now, they were to have only one-third interest, the forty-nine.

[00:23:12.000 – 00:23:18.000] And for services rendered, you know, I took myself a third.

[00:23:18.000 – 00:23:20.200] Hank, he collected the money.

[00:23:20.200 – 00:23:22.300] That was a very valuable service indeed.

[00:23:22.300 – 00:23:23.400] He took a third.

[00:23:23.400 – 00:23:28.300] So it was two-thirds water and $4,900 drunk’s money.

[00:23:28.300 – 00:23:33.400] So that is how the book venture started.

[00:23:33.400 – 00:23:36.500] It was all very spiritual, I assure you.

[00:23:36.500 – 00:23:46.600] Well, meanwhile, our new friends, the trustees, thinking they had advised us very well on money once, which they

[00:23:46.600 – 00:23:49.300] did, tried to do it again.

[00:23:49.300 – 00:23:56.800] And they said, why, this will never work, says Mr.

[00:23:56.800 – 00:23:58.100] Rockefeller’s friends.

[00:23:58.100 – 00:24:00.000] Can’t be done.

[00:24:00.000 – 00:24:03.800] Authors never publish books and get away with it.

[00:24:03.800 – 00:24:06.000] We’ve inquired about this.

[00:24:06.000 – 00:24:08.000] We think you’re on the wrong track.

[00:24:08.000 – 00:24:15.100] Well, politely but pointedly, we reminded them there was no money in the damn foundation.

[00:24:15.100 – 00:24:19.500] And why hand this wonderful new coming book to Harper?

[00:24:19.500 – 00:24:24.700] Shouldn’t our society own it, or at least stockholders?

[00:24:24.700 – 00:24:30.500] Well, so the preparation of the book went on.

[00:24:30.500 – 00:24:34.100] And a chapter would be roughed out.

[00:24:34.100 – 00:24:39.400] And we would send it out to Smithy in Akron, and he’d peddle it around out there.

[00:24:39.400 – 00:24:45.900] They’d peddle around the chapters in the little meetings in our parlor at Clinton Street, Brooklyn.

[00:24:45.900 – 00:24:51.800] And the drunks would paw and claw these chapters, these roughs over.

[00:24:51.800 – 00:24:57.300] And I soon discovered I wasn’t the author of this text at all.

[00:24:57.300 – 00:25:02.800] I was just the umpire out of the tremendous number of fights we had about it.

[00:25:02.800 – 00:25:09.200] Oh, it was a very spiritual operation.

[00:25:09.200 – 00:25:17.900] Meanwhile, I got to the place in the book where you had to begin to tell them what it was all about.

[00:25:17.900 – 00:25:21.800] I’d got my story written and that introductory chapter.

[00:25:21.800 – 00:25:25.600] And I don’t know, we’d softened up the agnostics.

[00:25:25.600 – 00:25:28.000] And, well, when were we going to get out of cable?

[00:25:28.000 – 00:25:38.100] So one night, under very spiritual auspices, suffering from an awful case of self-pity, the stockholders

[00:25:38.100 – 00:25:48.300] weren’t coming through at the moment, lying abed in pain from one of my psychosomatic imaginary ulcer attacks, I

[00:25:48.300 – 00:25:52.600] commenced to write what are called 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:25:52.600 – 00:25:59.700] And the only reason for making a number of steps was this.

[00:25:59.700 – 00:26:04.100] We’d got a little cynical about drunks then.

[00:26:04.100 – 00:26:06.800] We realized that they were rationalizers.

[00:26:06.800 – 00:26:16.500] And we said this word-of-mouth program is too brief, and the truth is thrown out of in big chunks.

[00:26:16.500 – 00:26:23.400] You better handle them piece, see, and then put them on a track so that they can’t possibly run off it if they keep going.

[00:26:23.400 – 00:26:31.300] So we’ll say, yeah, we admitted we are hopeless, and we’ll get honest with ourselves.

[00:26:31.300 – 00:26:32.500] We’ll make a confession.

[00:26:32.500 – 00:26:39.500] We’ll make restitution, and we’ll pray as best we can, and we’ll help other people without demand for reward.

[00:26:39.500 – 00:26:41.100] That’s the word-of-mouth program.

[00:26:41.100 – 00:26:48.600] But let’s bust it up into littler pieces so that these readers out there at a distance can’t miss a trick.

[00:26:49.500 – 00:26:51.000] Can’t wiggle out of it.

[00:26:51.000 – 00:27:01.100] So in about a half an hour, uh, grossing a good deal about the stockholders as I wrote, all was

[00:27:01.100 – 00:27:03.100] very inspired, I tell you.

[00:27:03.100 – 00:27:13.300] I wrote the 12 steps of the Alcoholics Anonymous program, and they became,

[00:27:13.300 – 00:27:17.100] as you know, the basis for the next two or three chapters in the book.

[00:27:17.100 – 00:27:27.200] And presently, after I put it through a typing or two, I brought it around to a meeting, and all

[00:27:27.200 – 00:27:28.600] hell broke loose.

[00:27:28.600 – 00:27:31.000] “Twelve steps?

[00:27:31.000 – 00:27:33.300] What do you mean twelve steps?

[00:27:33.300 – 00:27:41.700] We got well on six steps.” “Who the hell do you think you are?

[00:27:41.700 – 00:27:48.800] Twelve steps.” Same thing out of Akron.

[00:27:48.800 – 00:27:52.500] The drunks ripped them 12 steps all in small pieces.

[00:27:52.500 – 00:28:02.500] “Besides,” they said, “you got it loused up with God all, all the way down.” “One day you’re ta- you’re talking about this big

[00:28:02.500 – 00:28:14.500] hot flash you got and loading everybody with a lot of this God stuff, and the next day you’re out selling them stock shares.” “Now

[00:28:14.500 – 00:28:17.000] you got 12 steps instead of six.

[00:28:17.000 – 00:28:19.000] Let’s keep it simple,” they said.

[00:28:19.000 – 00:28:23.400] Well, I took a bit of persuasion.

[00:28:23.400 – 00:28:29.300] And we finally hit on one little compromise about those 12 steps.

[00:28:29.300 – 00:28:32.000] I had loaded it up with God pretty heavy.

[00:28:32.000 – 00:28:42.300] So, uh, one of the boys says, “Why don’t you give them mince, apple, and plum on the theory that if mince gives them a bellyache,

[00:28:42.300 – 00:28:44.100] well, they can have some apples,” see?

[00:28:44.100 – 00:28:46.500] In other words, why don’t you kinda…

[00:28:46.500 – 00:28:56.400] You can put in a little about God, but, uh, throw in some stuff about that higher power and a power greater than yourself, God as we understand Him.

[00:28:56.400 – 00:29:05.300] So that was the compromise between my hot flash and the more realistic drunks than I was.

[00:29:05.300 – 00:29:09.700] And very grudgingly I made it, which was the only change.

[00:29:09.700 – 00:29:17.700] Original steps were ripped, and finally approved after a perfectly hellish fight.

[00:29:17.700 – 00:29:23.400] Well, of course, we’d only just got going.

[00:29:23.400 – 00:29:27.500] Meanwhile, Nick was out peddling the certificates every day.

[00:29:27.500 – 00:29:36.300] And it got to be very complicated, uh, because, uh, they were all, nearly all out buying them on installment.

[00:29:36.300 – 00:29:41.400] Some guys would buy $25 share, $5 a month, see?

[00:29:41.400 – 00:29:42.600] And you had to go around.

[00:29:42.600 – 00:29:44.200] He was a collection agency.

[00:29:44.200 – 00:29:46.700] But he was eating good all the time.

[00:29:46.700 – 00:29:47.600] He couldn’t kick.

[00:29:47.600 – 00:29:53.400] And I was a-writing away and arguing away with these drunks about the book.

[00:29:53.400 – 00:29:59.200] So by and by, we get near completed.

[00:29:59.200 – 00:30:04.700] Smithy out in Akron, he’d gone around and collected a parcel of stories.

[00:30:04.700 – 00:30:10.700] About 30 stories in the book, you know, and about three-fifths of them came from Akron.

[00:30:10.700 – 00:30:17.200] The other two-fifths, excepting one from Cleveland, where they fell back to where they began.

[00:30:17.200 – 00:30:26.700] One, uh, uh, two-fifths of them came from New York.

[00:30:26.700 – 00:30:36.700] So the stories got in, and then of course we went through another hell of a time because authors who are not

[00:30:36.700 – 00:30:45.900] hardened writers are very sensitive about editing and cutting and deleting and trimming and having suggestions made to them.

[00:30:45.900 – 00:30:56.600] Well, when you have 30 drunken authors and they write the, the tremendous stories of their own lives, and

[00:30:56.600 – 00:31:06.600] some other drunk starts to cut and mark them up, you can just imagine how spiritual the atmosphere was when we were correcting it.

[00:31:06.600 – 00:31:17.300] But at least, about January,

[00:31:17.300 – 00:31:21.500] the thing was fairly well in the bag.

[00:31:21.500 – 00:31:25.100] And then we got awful cautious.

[00:31:25.100 – 00:31:31.000] We woke up to the fact that none of us knew much about religion.

[00:31:31.000 – 00:31:38.300] Uh, we didn’t know…

[00:31:38.300 – 00:31:44.600] At that time, we didn’t have any psychiatric victims around like we to refer to.

[00:31:44.600 – 00:31:53.200] And we wondered, uh, how this document was going to sell.

[00:31:53.200 – 00:32:03.200] Besides, some of the principles, you know, the bigger concept groups, had been abstracted from the Oxford Group through my friend Ebby who came to me.

[00:32:03.200 – 00:32:07.500] We’d learned from those good people both what and what not to do.

[00:32:07.500 – 00:32:10.800] And meanwhile, the pulp that he’s written in-

[00:32:10.900 – 00:32:20.900] Of the Oxford Group, and, uh, while we were now very much different, uh, we had a big scare, and we said, “My God, all these Kiley’s and

[00:32:20.900 – 00:32:22.100] Hops to come.

[00:32:22.100 – 00:32:30.300] If the Pope writes them off, we’re gonna be in an awful fix.” This book has got to satisfy the Irish.

[00:32:30.300 – 00:32:38.100] Moreover, and even worse, it has got to satisfy the secular.

[00:32:38.100 – 00:32:43.100] And most of all, it has to satisfy that drop-out of today.

[00:32:43.100 – 00:32:49.400] So how are we going to keep out of denominational trouble, and have we tread on anybody’s corn?

[00:32:49.400 – 00:32:58.400] “Boys, we better settle some more of them worst publishing stars,” and we better make a pre-publication copy of the book.

[00:32:58.400 – 00:33:03.200] Once where the good deal of labor was done, about copies.

[00:33:03.200 – 00:33:05.100] They’re the real museum pieces.

[00:33:05.100 – 00:33:15.100] So we sent them out to doctors, to scientists, housewives, fish

[00:33:15.100 – 00:33:15.700] wives.

[00:33:15.700 – 00:33:26.100] And with great trepidation, we laid hold of the only Irishman we had, who had just come out of Greystone

[00:33:26.100 – 00:33:26.800] Asylum.

[00:33:26.800 – 00:33:36.300] And we sent him over to the Catholic Committee on Publications in New York to see what the committee thought about it.

[00:33:36.300 – 00:33:40.600] Well, of course, we all had a bad case of the jitters.

[00:33:40.600 – 00:33:46.300] By some strange coincidence, we didn’t just have any Catholic members.

[00:33:46.300 – 00:33:51.000] Only one Macklin, and we just got one in New York.

[00:33:51.000 – 00:33:56.300] This guy, Morgan, who becomes quite the hero of this tale.

[00:33:56.300 – 00:34:03.100] So our friend Morgan Ryan, uh, he knows somebody on the committee.

[00:34:03.100 – 00:34:04.800] You know how them Irishmen are.

[00:34:04.800 – 00:34:10.000] And he sneaked it over into the committee, and the committee takes a look at it.

[00:34:10.000 – 00:34:21.500] After a while, uh, Morgan comes in and he said, “Gee,” he said, “it got by.” “Boy,”

[00:34:21.500 – 00:34:32.300] he said, “it got by in a howl.” He said, “Of course, the bishop, he’s gonna put an imprimatur on it, but, uh, it’s all in the clear.” So

[00:34:32.300 – 00:34:33.600] the committee called in Mr.

[00:34:33.600 – 00:34:39.200] Ryan and they said, “Now, this is an admirable work.

[00:34:39.200 – 00:34:41.400] Church will have no objection to it.

[00:34:41.400 – 00:34:51.400] In fact, we have only one absolutely necessary change that has to be made in this book for

[00:34:51.400 – 00:34:55.000] Catholic readers.” So Mr.

[00:34:55.000 – 00:35:05.100] Ryan said, “Well, what is it?” “Well,” he said, “right here in the first chapter, called Bill’s Story, you will

[00:35:05.100 – 00:35:15.600] find near the end a statement which reads like this.” And they turned to the chapter which read, in a burst of extravagance,

[00:35:15.600 – 00:35:26.800] of course, a rhetorical flourish, and it starts the chapter by saying, “We have found heaven right here on this good

[00:35:26.800 – 00:35:33.400] old earth.” So Morgan’s priest friends on the committee looked at him and they said, “Now, Morgan, couldn’t Mr.

[00:35:33.400 – 00:35:40.000] Wilson just shift that a little bit?” He said, “Couldn’t he change that word heaven to utopia?

[00:35:40.000 – 00:35:56.900] After all, we clergymen are promising folks something much better later on.” Moreover,

[00:35:56.900 – 00:36:07.300] we don’t require it, and the chapter on meditation and prayer is perfect from the Catholic viewpoint, but, uh, maybe a few little

[00:36:07.300 – 00:36:09.700] improvements or whatever.

[00:36:09.700 – 00:36:12.700] Well, they were the improvements we got, and we slapped them right in.

[00:36:12.700 – 00:36:17.300] So now the great day has arrived.

[00:36:17.300 – 00:36:26.100] But the money, the stockholder’s money, the trickle had got right down to just a drop at a time.

[00:36:26.100 – 00:36:30.300] Uh, there was very little in the bank.

[00:36:30.300 – 00:36:36.300] So we thought we better go over to the printer and see what could be done.

[00:36:36.300 – 00:36:38.200] We were ready to go to press.

[00:36:38.200 – 00:36:47.400] Well, through an introduction, we got to one of the very big commercial printers, Cornwall Press.

[00:36:47.400 – 00:36:52.400] Cornwall turned out to be an awful nice gent, as you will see.

[00:36:52.400 – 00:37:02.500] And he said to us, “Well,” he said, uh, “Sure, of course, we’ll print the book,

[00:37:02.500 – 00:37:08.900] but here’s what it’ll cost, about thirty-five cents a copy, provided you get quite a few printed.

[00:37:08.900 – 00:37:19.100] Be somewhat higher, unless…” Says, “About how many of these books do you folks want printed?” Well, of course,

[00:37:19.100 – 00:37:23.300] we said we only got one hundred members in Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:37:23.300 – 00:37:32.600] In fact, we thought we’d call this book, uh, uh, One Hundred Men, but we had one alcoholic woman, and she squawked, and so we called it Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:37:34.900 – 00:37:38.800] Well, he said, “How many do you want?” “Oh, well,” we said, “the market’s going to be very big.

[00:37:38.800 – 00:37:41.900] Reader’s Digest is going to print this piece.

[00:37:41.900 – 00:37:44.100] They got 12 million circulation.

[00:37:44.100 – 00:37:52.400] These books are going to want to turn over.” And then, uh, we said, “Of course, uh, well, we have this nice connection with Mr.

[00:37:52.400 – 00:38:02.600] Rockefeller.” Well, he said, uh, “What, what about the money?” Uh, he said, “Uh, how much you got to put on the line?” “Oh, well,” we said, uh,

[00:38:02.600 – 00:38:09.100] “well, currently we don’t– the bank account’s just a little bit low, but, uh, we could put the $200 down.

[00:38:09.100 – 00:38:12.500] And of course, you can easily see this thing’s going to move out.

[00:38:12.500 – 00:38:15.000] And besides, the, the, our friendship with Mr.

[00:38:15.000 – 00:38:25.100] Rockefeller, you know, if we really got put to it…” So he printed up 5,000 copies of the book Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:38:25.100 – 00:38:33.300] Then Hank and I went up to the Reader’s Digest to see the managing editor, Mr.

[00:38:33.300 – 00:38:34.100] Taine.

[00:38:34.100 – 00:38:35.800] We walked into Mr.

[00:38:35.800 – 00:38:39.600] Taine’s office, all bright and glowing.

[00:38:39.600 – 00:38:40.500] I said, “Well, Mr.

[00:38:40.500 – 00:38:42.100] Taine, the job is done.

[00:38:42.100 – 00:38:45.900] We’re all ready to shoot.” Mr.

[00:38:45.900 – 00:38:55.900] Taine gave us a rather blank stare, and he said, “Gentlemen, uh, shoot what?” Oh,

[00:38:55.900 – 00:38:57.000] what a sinking sight.

[00:38:57.000 – 00:38:58.500] Shoot what?

[00:38:58.500 – 00:39:03.700] “Oh,” he said, “Yes.” He said, “I remember you fellas.

[00:39:03.700 – 00:39:11.700] You were in here last fall, weren’t you?” Said, “You’re those, uh, you remember that, uh, society of alcoholics helping each other.

[00:39:11.700 – 00:39:21.800] Oh, dear me,” he said, “I, I’m really so sorry about this.” Uh, he said, “Shortly after we– you, you went away, I made the

[00:39:21.800 – 00:39:27.400] proposal in an editorial meeting, and all the other editors disagreed with me.

[00:39:27.400 – 00:39:35.800] Gee,” he said, “I thought this was a good idea.” He said, “No, not likely at all.” They said, “There isn’t any public interest in drunks at all.

[00:39:35.800 – 00:39:37.800] It’s a taboo subject.

[00:39:37.800 – 00:39:44.800] This society of yours might prove awfully controversial medically and religiously.

[00:39:44.800 – 00:39:55.100] Frankly, we decided way back last fall that we couldn’t do the piece, and we forgot to let you know.”

[00:39:56.200 – 00:39:56.600] Oh.

[00:39:56.600 – 00:40:05.800] And we had $4,900 of them drunks’ money , 5,000 books in the warehouse.

[00:40:05.800 – 00:40:15.800] And at that juncture, the bank foreclosed on the Wilsons’ house in Clinton Street, Brooklyn, and we were set out in the street.

[00:40:15.800 – 00:40:25.200] Such was the s-state of Alcoholics Anonymous and the book Alcoholics Anonymous at the end of four years of this mission.

[00:40:25.200 – 00:40:35.300] Well, how could we go back and face the drunks that we had abstracted $4,900

[00:40:35.300 – 00:40:38.300] from 49 of them?

[00:40:38.300 – 00:40:43.400] Well, one drunk said, “Okay.

[00:40:43.400 – 00:40:53.900] If you can pick up the pieces, I’ll let you have the use of my summer camp.” Another drunk lent us an automobile.

[00:40:53.900 – 00:40:59.000] We put our stuff in storage on the cusp.

[00:40:59.000 – 00:41:01.400] Couldn’t even pay the truckman.

[00:41:01.400 – 00:41:06.900] People began to pass the hat.

[00:41:06.900 – 00:41:11.100] Fifty dollars a month came in for groceries.

[00:41:11.100 – 00:41:21.300] When it got too soul cold in the summer camp, Lois and I began to live in one AA’s house and then the next, and so we lived for several years.

[00:41:21.300 – 00:41:31.200] Well, meanwhile, the printer, he got a little restless and began to ask us about that Rockefeller connection and what about a little money.

[00:41:31.200 – 00:41:35.000] Meanwhile, we hadn’t heard anything of Mr.

[00:41:35.000 – 00:41:38.700] Rockefeller, you remember, since 1937.

[00:41:38.700 – 00:41:42.900] And at that time, he wasn’t, uh, favorable on the money.

[00:41:42.900 – 00:41:54.600] Well, of course, our friends, the trustees, uh, kind of politely said, “Well, we closed you, so.” Well,

[00:41:54.600 – 00:41:55.800] we got frantic then.

[00:41:55.800 – 00:42:02.000] The sheriff actually moved in on that little office over in Newark where a good deal of this work was done.

[00:42:02.000 – 00:42:05.100] Of course, we were out of our house.

[00:42:05.100 – 00:42:08.400] Hank was soon put out of his place.

[00:42:08.400 – 00:42:19.200] And the printer, he began to say, “Well, uh, maybe I’ll have to take this book over.” Well,

[00:42:19.200 – 00:42:24.000] we knew we just had to get some publicity to move some of those damn books.

[00:42:24.000 – 00:42:33.600] Meanwhile, here were 49 griping drunks, and the word had spread through Akron that this was a New York racket which had gone sour.

[00:42:33.600 – 00:42:38.700] And that was communicated to Cleveland, where the legend has been carried ever since.

[00:42:38.700 – 00:42:49.000] So we made a hasty canvas of all the magazines that published in New York City.

[00:42:49.000 – 00:42:53.600] Nobody would print one single piece about Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:42:55.300 – 00:43:02.900] When all of a sudden, our hero of Greystone Asylum, Irishman number one in the New York group, Mr.

[00:43:02.900 – 00:43:09.100] Ryan, said, “Gee,” he says, “why didn’t I think of it?

[00:43:09.100 – 00:43:16.100] We got, I got a wonderful idea.” He said, “You know, of course, I used to be a big shot in the ad business.

[00:43:16.100 – 00:43:21.500] I will be soon again, but I used to know Gabriel Heatter.

[00:43:21.500 – 00:43:31.300] He’s putting on those three-minute interviews, you know, human interest stuff,” and he pulls the old stop right out, too, 96 station hookup.

[00:43:31.300 – 00:43:33.200] “I’ll go over and see Gabriel.

[00:43:33.200 – 00:43:35.700] Boys, we’ll move these books in carloads.

[00:43:35.700 – 00:43:45.000] Don’t worry.” So Gabriel, and Gabriel says, “Why, sure, Morgan, I’m delighted to see you.

[00:43:45.000 – 00:43:47.400] Of course I’ll put on an interview in about two weeks.

[00:43:47.400 – 00:43:47.900] Come on in.

[00:43:47.900 – 00:43:54.400] Here’s, uh, put, put you right down for it now.” Ryan came back all rain.

[00:43:54.400 – 00:44:04.600] “Gabriel, uh, Heatter will interview me about the Society of Alcoholics Anonymous, our wonderful new book, Sure Cure for Alcoholism, 96 station hookup.”

[00:44:04.600 – 00:44:06.600] All the drunks brightened up.

[00:44:06.600 – 00:44:10.700] Again, we could see the books going out in carloads, carload lots.

[00:44:10.700 – 00:44:14.700] We even thought we’d give the printer another order if he’d stand for it.

[00:44:14.700 – 00:44:15.400] Get ready.

[00:44:15.400 – 00:44:25.400] So, uh, all of a sudden

[00:44:25.400 – 00:44:27.500] we had a terrible chill.

[00:44:27.500 – 00:44:39.900] We said to ourselves, “This guy Ryan has only been out of Greystone Asylum three months now.” Made

[00:44:39.900 – 00:44:50.100] up, and we’ll time it with the broadcast so that just before Heatter’s broadcast hits, two weeks hence,

[00:44:50.100 – 00:45:00.100] a postal card shower will hit every doctor east of the Mississippi, 20,000 of them, and the postal card will

[00:45:00.100 – 00:45:04.900] say, “Listen to Gabriel Heatter on Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:45:04.900 – 00:45:09.900] New cure for alcoholism hits the world.

[00:45:09.900 – 00:45:14.600] Buy the book Alcoholics Anonymous, $3.50.

[00:45:14.600 – 00:45:24.700] Sure cure for alcoholism.” Hank said, “Gee, we ought to do that.” So we gambled our last cent on the postal

[00:45:24.700 – 00:45:26.400] card shower.

[00:45:26.400 – 00:45:27.600] Sure enough, Mr.

[00:45:27.600 – 00:45:29.000] Ryan kept sober.

[00:45:29.000 – 00:45:29.800] He had to.

[00:45:29.800 – 00:45:33.300] And a great night came.

[00:45:33.300 – 00:45:43.800] You see, at that time, there wasn’t a very big market in AA for the books because we had only 100 members, and 49 members

[00:45:43.800 – 00:45:46.200] who had bought stock all had free books.

[00:45:46.200 – 00:45:56.000] And the 30 members who had put in the storage, they also had free books, so that made 79 books that were free and 100 members.

[00:45:56.000 – 00:45:59.300] But again, we could see them going out in carload lots.

[00:45:59.300 – 00:46:02.200] Gabriel Heatter, 96 station hookup.

[00:46:02.200 – 00:46:06.800] The drunks had got all their ears glued to the receivers.

[00:46:06.800 – 00:46:10.200] Akron, Cleveland, New York.

[00:46:10.200 – 00:46:12.500] Will Ryan show up?

[00:46:12.500 – 00:46:14.100] Will he make it?

[00:46:14.100 – 00:46:18.100] Yes, sir, and then we hear Heatter come on.

[00:46:18.100 – 00:46:20.700] And boy, he’ll pull the old stop right out.

[00:46:20.700 – 00:46:31.000] Ryan told him how he came out of the asylum, how hopeless he was, how the doctors had pronounced him insurable.

[00:46:31.000 – 00:46:34.200] And said, “Heatter, Mr.

[00:46:34.200 – 00:46:44.300] Ryan, how long have you been sober?” And Ryan said, “About three months.” So, I said, “Ryan, there are plenty

[00:46:44.300 – 00:46:47.100] more, plenty more sober two, three years.

[00:46:47.100 – 00:46:49.300] Sure cure for alcoholism, Mr.

[00:46:49.300 – 00:46:55.200] Heatter.” Well, we just couldn’t wait for the book orders to come in.

[00:46:55.200 – 00:47:01.600] We had a post office box then, Church Street Annex Post Office.

[00:47:01.600 – 00:47:03.700] You’ll see it in the first couple editions.

[00:47:03.700 – 00:47:11.300] We couldn’t wait that four or five days for all them doctors to send in those thousands of book orders.

[00:47:11.300 – 00:47:14.500] $3.50 we were going to get for those.

[00:47:14.500 – 00:47:15.900] No cheap books, either.

[00:47:15.900 – 00:47:17.700] $3.50.

[00:47:17.700 – 00:47:20.900] 35 cents to print them.

[00:47:20.900 – 00:47:27.400] We went over to the post office box, Hank and little Wolfie Mott and me.

[00:47:27.400 – 00:47:32.500] I had that funny sinking sensation again.

[00:47:32.500 – 00:47:36.100] In the box you could see a few little postal cards.

[00:47:36.100 – 00:47:39.200] But Hank, he was always an optimist.

[00:47:39.200 – 00:47:49.400] Hank said, “Hell, Bill,” he says, “don’t worry.” He said, “They couldn’t get all that stuff in the box.” He said, “They got bags and bags and bags out there.”

[00:48:01.200 – 00:48:03.800] So we went to the window.

[00:48:03.800 – 00:48:14.200] Hank said brightly, “Well, how about the mail in Box 658?” Clerk boy said, “Four postal cards.”

[00:48:14.200 – 00:48:15.800] Hank said, “Where are the rest?”

[00:48:16.400 – 00:48:18.500] Have you got some more bags of these out here?

[00:48:18.500 – 00:48:19.700] No.

[00:48:19.700 – 00:48:30.400] I remember how we took those personal cards and spread them out on the glass top desk in that downtown post office.

[00:48:30.400 – 00:48:39.800] And 10 of them were from doctors so drunk they couldn’t write at all, and we had exactly two book orders for the book Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:48:39.800 – 00:48:43.900] And then, boy, we were broke for fair.

[00:48:43.900 – 00:48:53.200] And everybody said, “I told you so.” Well, we kept something to come.

[00:48:53.200 – 00:49:01.100] Finally, we got Liberty Magazine promised a piece, and who do you suppose promised it?

[00:49:01.100 – 00:49:09.800] A very well-known character in American life who has good reason to be interested in AA, although he’s not a drunken stout.

[00:49:09.800 – 00:49:19.400] No less guy than Fulton Oursler, the notable author and today of the Reader’s Digest, then the managing editor of Liberty.

[00:49:19.400 – 00:49:23.500] And he put Morris Markey, a freelancer, on it.

[00:49:23.500 – 00:49:31.400] But it was only about June 1939 then, and they couldn’t publish until the next September this story.

[00:49:31.400 – 00:49:40.400] Well, of course, with this stuff from his promise from the Reader– from, uh, Liberty Magazine, we couldn’t miss.

[00:49:40.400 – 00:49:47.000] The cargo– the books would be going out in cargo lots, of course, in September, but this was only June.

[00:49:47.000 – 00:49:51.200] Meanwhile, the sheriff had moved in on our office.

[00:49:51.200 – 00:49:56.900] We’d snuck out of that building and into another one, into a little cubicle over there in Newark.

[00:49:56.900 – 00:50:00.200] Ruthie Hoch was working with no pay.

[00:50:00.200 – 00:50:02.800] Lois and I were in the summer camp.

[00:50:02.800 – 00:50:06.200] The drunks were passing the hat.

[00:50:06.200 – 00:50:10.000] And how were we going to stave off the print?

[00:50:10.000 – 00:50:12.800] He was really getting restless by now.

[00:50:12.800 – 00:50:22.700] So I went over to a friend of mine, an old-time AA in New York, named Burt Taylor.

[00:50:22.700 – 00:50:30.300] Burt had a, had a now very fashionable tailoring shop on Fifth Avenue, but there was nothing left to it but the top.

[00:50:30.300 – 00:50:32.400] He’d drunk up all the rest.

[00:50:32.400 – 00:50:38.700] Of course, Burt had a few very fashionable customers, in fact, some of the Rockefellers.

[00:50:38.700 – 00:50:43.200] So Burt was our shining capitalist at the moment.

[00:50:43.200 – 00:50:49.100] I went to Burt, who had purchased some stock in the book Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:50:49.100 – 00:50:51.000] I think he was a big stockholder.

[00:50:51.000 – 00:50:52.100] He had four shares.

[00:50:52.100 – 00:50:59.900] I said to Burt, “Look, Burt, Liberty is going to publish in September.

[00:50:59.900 – 00:51:03.300] The books will then move out in cargo lots.

[00:51:03.300 – 00:51:08.600] But Burt, we gotta have a thousand dollars to tide us over.

[00:51:08.600 – 00:51:19.600] Could you dig that up somehow?” And Burt said to me, “Are you sure that Liberty is going to publish in September?

[00:51:19.600 – 00:51:22.600] You know how the Digest deals in.” “Oh, yes.

[00:51:22.600 – 00:51:26.800] We can’t miss, Burt.” Well, Burt was an optimist.

[00:51:26.800 – 00:51:29.100] He said, “You know, I got a lot of rich customers.

[00:51:29.100 – 00:51:37.300] I’ll call one up.” So he got on the telephone and called up a man in Baltimore, a certain Mr.

[00:51:37.300 – 00:51:38.100] Cochran.

[00:51:38.100 – 00:51:38.600] Mr.

[00:51:38.600 – 00:51:41.800] Cochran was interested in citrus.

[00:51:41.800 – 00:51:43.900] “Oh,” says Burt, “but be careful.

[00:51:43.900 – 00:51:53.000] I mean, we don’t want to get mixed up with this dry business.” “Listen,” says Burt, “do you want that thousand dollars or don’t you?” So Burt said to his friend, Mr.

[00:51:53.000 – 00:51:55.700] Cochran, uh, “Of course, Mr.

[00:51:55.700 – 00:52:02.000] Cochran, uh, you probably heard me tell about that new society I’m a member in, Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:52:02.000 – 00:52:04.900] I know how interested you are in alcoholism.

[00:52:04.900 – 00:52:05.700] Mr.

[00:52:05.700 – 00:52:15.300] Cochran, it just occurs to us that maybe you’d be interested in this book of ours called Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:52:15.300 – 00:52:17.700] Sure, sure, for alcoholism, Mr.

[00:52:17.700 – 00:52:20.300] Cochran.

[00:52:20.300 – 00:52:28.500] And we think that you might be interested in placing copies of this book, Alcoholics Anonymous, in a number of public libraries.

[00:52:28.500 – 00:52:32.100] We have published a limited edition of this, Mr.

[00:52:32.100 – 00:52:32.800] Cochran.

[00:52:32.800 – 00:52:43.000] Uh, we have only five thousand copies on hand, but we would be willing to let you have a couple thousand, uh, copies, sold cheap, around two dollars,

[00:52:43.000 – 00:52:47.700] although the actual price, three-fifty, for this good and charitable purpose.

[00:52:47.700 – 00:52:51.500] So you put them out in the library.” Mr.

[00:52:51.500 – 00:52:54.100] Cochran, no, he didn’t think he’d care for that.

[00:52:54.100 – 00:52:59.400] So Burt, uh, said, “Well, uh, uh, Mr.

[00:52:59.400 – 00:53:06.800] Cochran, uh, we, uh, our society has a publishing company known as Works Publishing Company.

[00:53:06.800 – 00:53:16.900] We publish this book.” And, uh, he said, uh, “Our capital at the present time is mostly in the form of

[00:53:16.900 – 00:53:25.900] these books, and we have a piece coming out in fall in Liberty Magazine, which of course will move these five thousand books and many more.

[00:53:25.900 – 00:53:31.000] And, uh, frankly, we need about a thousand dollars to tide us over.

[00:53:31.000 – 00:53:37.900] Would you lend the Works Publishing Company, uh, five thousand dollars?” “Well,” said Mr.

[00:53:38.100 – 00:53:48.200] Cochran, a very practical man, he said, “What does the balance sheet of Worth Publishing Company look like?” So Burt told him, and he said, “No, I don’t think I’d care for any

[00:53:48.200 – 00:53:53.800] of that.” So then Burt said, “Look, Mr.

[00:53:53.800 – 00:53:59.200] Cochran, you know that I have a large and prosperous business here.” And Mr.

[00:53:59.200 – 00:54:04.700] Cochran, of course, was impressed by the front room and knew nothing of Burt’s banking situation.

[00:54:04.700 – 00:54:09.400] He said, “Well, of course.” “Well,” said Burt, “Mr.

[00:54:09.400 – 00:54:17.300] Cochran, will you lend me the money, the $1,000, and I in turn will lend it to Worth Publishing?” “Why, of course,” said Mr.

[00:54:17.300 – 00:54:17.900] Cochran.

[00:54:17.900 – 00:54:21.900] “Send me your note.” So Burt shipped Mr.

[00:54:21.900 – 00:54:29.300] Cochran a note on an already bankrupt business and got $1,000, which saved the book Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:54:29.300 – 00:54:32.100] Oh, it was all very spiritual, people, in those days.

[00:54:32.100 – 00:54:33.400] Very spiritual.

[00:54:33.400 – 00:54:39.700] Then comes the Liberty feats.

[00:54:39.700 – 00:54:43.000] 800 inquiries come in.

[00:54:43.000 – 00:54:44.200] Some books move out.

[00:54:44.200 – 00:54:47.400] The hundred of us start to mushroom.

[00:54:47.400 – 00:54:53.200] By the spring of 1940, we had jumped to 800 members.

[00:54:53.200 – 00:54:57.000] We sold enough books to just keep the printer happy.

[00:54:57.000 – 00:54:58.900] The stockholders were terribly aggressive.

[00:54:58.900 – 00:55:01.900] They were supposed to get their money back and keep the stock, too, you know.

[00:55:01.900 – 00:55:07.100] Then in 1940, as I told you last night, Mr.

[00:55:07.100 – 00:55:10.100] Rockefeller gave a dinner to all these banker boys.

[00:55:10.100 – 00:55:13.900] And we thought our money troubles were all over.

[00:55:13.900 – 00:55:16.000] But no, they weren’t.

[00:55:16.000 – 00:55:17.300] But Mr.

[00:55:17.300 – 00:55:26.700] Rockefeller at that time gave of himself, and he had it put on the AP and UP wires that he had given this dinner.

[00:55:26.700 – 00:55:29.400] And the Daily Mirror in New York said, “John D.

[00:55:29.400 – 00:55:38.500] Junior dined cross-pod.” Any rate, word went out to the world that AA was on the level.

[00:55:38.500 – 00:55:43.700] And a lot of people began to sneak into the bookstores to get a hold of this book that John D.

[00:55:43.700 – 00:55:45.900] influentially recommended.

[00:55:45.900 – 00:55:48.500] So we moved quite a few books.

[00:55:48.500 – 00:55:52.600] And then in 1941, the deluge.

[00:55:52.600 – 00:55:57.800] Jack Alexander printed his piece about Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:55:57.800 – 00:56:01.500] Thousands of frantic inquiries came down on us.

[00:56:01.500 – 00:56:04.300] The yearly books began to move.

[00:56:04.300 – 00:56:07.000] It paid off the stockholders.

[00:56:07.000 – 00:56:09.300] It bought in their stock.

[00:56:09.300 – 00:56:19.400] The two promoters, Hank and me, donated our stock to the foundation so that today you own this book through the foundation, through

[00:56:19.400 – 00:56:20.200] the members of AA.

[00:56:20.200 – 00:56:30.300] And Doc Smith was given a royalty of 35 cents on a book, and I was given a royalty of 35 cents on the book, and the foundation

[00:56:30.300 – 00:56:33.300] made a buck, and you groups who sell the book, you made a buck.

[00:56:33.300 – 00:56:37.200] And that’s how the book deal wound up.

[00:56:37.200 – 00:56:45.300] And today my only income is sales, the royalty on the book Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:56:45.300 – 00:56:47.600] But folks, I got a ways now.

[00:56:47.600 – 00:56:55.100] Every time that one of you goes to buy that book, I’ve got you for 52 and a half cents, and you send it.

[00:56:55.100 – 00:57:09.700] Does

[00:57:09.700 – 00:57:19.800] not that account so well show the workings of divine providence in our behalf?

[00:57:19.800 – 00:57:25.500] Here is world acclaim for this society.

[00:57:25.500 – 00:57:31.700] Here are the Jesuits who say that that book is perfect Catholicism.

[00:57:31.700 – 00:57:34.000] Well, so do the Christian Scientists.

[00:57:34.000 – 00:57:36.300] So do all the Protestant religions.

[00:57:36.300 – 00:57:43.100] We even had a Hindu princess who come on from India a while back, and she said it was good Hindu.

[00:57:43.100 – 00:57:49.200] World acclaim for this society and for that book.

[00:57:49.200 – 00:57:56.500] The governor of this state comes in and said this is the greatest humanitarian movement of our time.

[00:57:56.500 – 00:58:06.600] Yes, I think we can rightly say that Alcoholics Anonymous is a great and perfect

[00:58:06.600 – 00:58:16.700] ship, a society of immense perfection, still composed of

[00:58:16.700 – 00:58:25.600] very fallible people who have been able to do the impossible under the grace of God.

[00:58:25.600 – 00:58:35.600] So at this hour of parting, which is not goodbye but au revoir, let us calmly regard

[00:58:35.600 – 00:58:36.200] our future.

[00:58:36.200 – 00:58:47.100] Let our gaze be fixed on the highway leading to the east toward the sunrise.

[00:58:47.100 – 00:58:55.400] And may we soon meet you there.

[00:56:09.300 – 00:56:19.400] The two promoters, Hank and me, donated our stock to the foundation so that today you own this book through the foundation, through

[00:56:19.400 – 00:56:20.200] the members of AA.

[00:56:20.200 – 00:56:30.300] And Doc Smith was given a royalty of 35 cents on a book, and I was given a royalty of 35 cents on the book, and the foundation

[00:56:30.300 – 00:56:33.300] made a buck, and you groups who sell the book, you made a buck.

[00:56:33.300 – 00:56:37.200] And that’s how the book deal wound up.

[00:56:37.200 – 00:56:45.300] And today my only income is sales, the royalty on the book Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:56:45.300 – 00:56:47.600] But folks, I got a ways now.

[00:56:47.600 – 00:56:55.100] Every time that one of you goes to buy that book, I’ve got you for 52 and a half cents, and you send it.

[00:56:55.100 – 00:57:09.700] Does

[00:57:09.700 – 00:57:19.800] not that account so well show the workings of divine providence in our behalf?

[00:57:19.800 – 00:57:25.500] Here is world acclaim for this society.

[00:57:25.500 – 00:57:31.700] Here are the Jesuits who say that that book is perfect Catholicism.

[00:57:31.700 – 00:57:34.000] Well, so do the Christian Scientists.

[00:57:34.000 – 00:57:36.300] So do all the Protestant religions.

[00:57:36.300 – 00:57:43.100] We even had a Hindu princess who come on from India a while back, and she said it was good Hindu.

[00:57:43.100 – 00:57:49.200] World acclaim for this society and for that book.

[00:57:49.200 – 00:57:56.500] The governor of this state comes in and said this is the greatest humanitarian movement of our time.

[00:57:56.500 – 00:58:06.600] Yes, I think we can rightly say that Alcoholics Anonymous is a great and perfect

[00:58:06.600 – 00:58:16.700] ship, a society of immense perfection, still composed of

[00:58:16.700 – 00:58:25.600] very fallible people who have been able to do the impossible under the grace of God.

[00:58:25.600 – 00:58:35.600] So at this hour of parting, which is not goodbye but au revoir, let us calmly regard

[00:58:35.600 – 00:58:36.200] our future.

[00:58:36.200 – 00:58:47.100] Let our gaze be fixed on the highway leading to the east toward the sunrise.

[00:58:47.100 – 00:58:55.400] And may we soon meet you there.

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