PART 1

THE GRAPEVINE’S PLACE IN AA 2

HOW THE AA GRAPEVINE BEGAN 2

THE FIRST ISSUE 2

AUTHORS: AAS AND OTHERS 3

WOMEN, OLD-TIMERS, CROSS-ADDICTION 3

THE VOICE OF AA 3

THE GRAPEVINE, THE FBI, AND BOX 1980 4

THE AA TRADITIONS AND THE PREAMBLE 5

AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL 5

HOW THE AA GRAPEVINE CARRIES THE MESSAGE 6

WITHIN AA 6

TO THE SUFFERING ALCOHOLIC 7

TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC 7

THE GRAPEVINE AND THE GENERAL SERVICE CONFERENCE 9

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PART 1

THE GRAPEVINE’S PLACE IN AA

How The AA Grapevine Began

In the spring of 1944, six members of AA — four women and two men — got together in an apartment in New York City and considered the idea of publishing a local AA newsletter. A newsletter was exactly what was needed in those early days of AA, when the Fellowship was only nine years old and still finding its way. There was plenty of news to report. New groups were being formed, new meeting formats were being tried out, and new ways of twelfthsteppingwere being debated. AAs were talking about how to practice the Steps (Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions hadn’t yet been written), groups were struggling to stay in existence, andrecovering drunks were struggling to stay sober. What was needed, the six decided, was away to open up lines of communication between AA members in different places. They conceived a newsletter that would cover the activities of AA groups in the New York City area, as well as bring news of the Fellowship to AA men and women serving in the armed forces.

The editors wanted the go-ahead from AA co-founder Bill W., so one of them, a woman named Lois K., went to see Bill at his home in Bedford Hills, New York. Did he think the magazine was a good idea? He did: “Go to it,” he told her, “and blessings on you!”

THE FIRST ISSUE

The six editors (whom Bill affectionately dubbed the “six ink-stained wretches”) worked hard for several months, and at the end of May 1944, they met to inspect Volume 1, Number 1 of their newsletter. It was called the Grapevine, and that first issue was an eightpage, largeformat bulletin, costing $187.10 to design, print, and mail. Of the 1,200 copies printed, many were sent free of charge to AAs in the U.S. and Canadian armed forces.

At the heart of the early Grapevines, then as now, were first-person stories. For several years these took the form of informal letters and commissioned articles. There were also news and notes on current happenings at the Central Office, a page for news of AAs in the armed services (including letters from servicemen and women), and a feature called “Along the Metropolitan Circuit” which described meetings in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the suburbs in New Jersey and New York. A regular feature was the “Countrywide News Circuit,” which reported on the activities of AA groups everywhere. The explosion of new meetings — from Alaska to Arkansas, from Ireland to Australia — was reported with particular excitement, and headlines read: “70 New Groups in Two Months!” or “33 New Groups Added in Less than A Month.”

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AUTHORS: AAS AND OTHERS

In addition to AA news, there was an eclectic mix that included pieces written expressly for the Grapevine by non-AA writers. These included such literary lights as journalist Fulton Oursler, humorist S. J. Perlman, novelist Charles Jackson, and essayist Philip Wylie. For many years, the Grapevine continued to publish articles by non-AAs who were early friends and advocates of the Fellowship: Jack Alexander, the Reverend Samuel Shoemaker, Sister Ignatia, Dr. Harry Tiebout, Bernard Smith, and Lois W., among others. There were also lengthy articles on alcoholism education and research, book reviews of everything from murder mysteries to Hindu psychology, excerpts from published books, reprints from magazines and newspapers, notices of radio programs covering alcoholism or AA, and articles by relatives of AA members saying what AA meant to them. Cartoons and drawings made their appearance in the third issue. A humor column — “Barleycorn” — was added in the second year. No poetry was published (though plenty was received!); the editors confessed to “an incurable allergy” to it. In the sixth issue, a series of editorials on the Steps began, and ran forseveral years.

WOMEN, OLD-TIMERS, AND CROSS-ADDICTION

The early Grapevines also discussed such things as the place of women in AA, problems of old-timers (those with a month or more!), returning veterans, and whether or not to applaud a speaker. Issues that still concern contemporary AAs were often addressed — for example, crossaddiction. The third issue carried a letter requesting a special “hophead’s corner” for alcoholics also recovering from narcotics addiction. There were subsequent articles on the “sleeping pill menace” and what to do about pill problems when twelfth-stepping. Bill’s article “Those Goof Balls” was published in the November 1945 issue.

THE VOICE OF AA

By the fourth issue, the magazine began printing this description of itself under the masthead:

A Monthly Journal devoted to those seeking further knowledge on the problem of alcoholism, in the hope that it may prove a unifying bond to all alcoholics everywhere. Individual opinions expressed here are not, necessarily, those of AA as a whole.

The Grapevine was in fact appealing to “alcoholics everywhere” and it quickly caught onaround the country. In 1945, at the request of the groups, the Grapevine became the national AA periodical.

In March 1945, Bill W. wrote to the lawyer who was drafting incorporation papers for the magazine, laying out some basic tenets of how the magazine should operate. Bill stressed the

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Grapevine’s independence and suggested the following: that the Grapevine should be the voice of AA as a whole; that the Trustees of the Grapevine should be able to suggest and advise — but not command; that no individual or single group should ever dominate the magazine; and that the Grapevine should print articles expressing the widest differences of opinion on all AA topics. Bill also suggested that the Grapevine should not publish any pieces on politics or religion, should not carry outside advertising, and should engage in no propaganda concerning any outside causes. In other words, the primary purpose of the magazine — like that of individual members — was simply to carry the AA message to alcoholics and to practice the AA principles in all its affairs. The spirit of these guidelines — autonomy, diversity, and singleness of purpose — continues to be central to the Grapevine to this day.

Officially, Bill was the Grapevine’s “senior editorial advisor”; unofficially, he was its mentor, spiritual guide, chief booster — and a major contributor. Early on, Bill saw in the Grapevine a way for him to communicate effectively and rapidly with the Fellowship as a whole. Over the years, he published more than 150 articles in the magazine, setting forth his hopes and fears and practical ideas about the Fellowship. In the forties, as AA struggled to find its place in the larger society, the Grapevine became an important source of

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The Grapevine, the FBI, and Box 1980

Have you ever noticed that the words “Box 1980” appear on every cover of the magazine, as well as on most Grapevine mail? Box 1980 is, in fact, the Grapevine’s official name — the name by which it is registered with the U.S. Postal Service. There’s a story behind this. Prior to 1974, the Grapevine was mailed to subscribers in an unmarked envelope which afforded anonymity to the recipients and allowed the Grapevine to take advantage of periodical postal rates. However, in 1974 postal regulations were changed and it became necessary for the full name of the publication to appear both on the cover of the magazine itself and on the outside of the mailing envelope — a move with severe implications for the principle and practice of anonymity. When the Grapevine began, it was called just “the Grapevine.” But one day in 1946, a call came in to the Grapevine office from the FBI. It turned out a group of former FBI agents put out a newsletter called “The Grapevine,” and they said they’d take legal action if the AA publication didn’t change its name. The AAs sought to work out a friendly compromise, so our “Grapevine” officially became “The AA Grapevine.” This event back in 1946 affected the Grapevine nearly thirty years later. The magazine was now forced by the new postal regulations either to pay higher rates, or in order to keep periodical rates, to print the full name of the magazine on the outside of the mailing envelope — thereby threatening the anonymity of subscribers. But a creative s o lu t i o n w as found: change t h e o fficial n ame o f the publication to something other than “the AA Grapevine.” Since PO Box 1980 had long been part of the Grapevine’s mailing address and was familiar to subscribers, the name “Box 1980” was duly registered with the Post Office and now appears on the cover of the magazine and all official mail. (By the way, this box number was assigned by the Post Office and has nothing to do with the year 1980.) The words “Box 1980,” then, represent a cherished principle at the very heart of our Fellowship — the Tradition of anonymity.

information on the vital issues of anonymity, membership, professionalism, public relations, and singleness of purpose. As AA groups tried to clarify the basic principles that would guide them, Bill W. hammered out his thoughts in the pages of the Grapevine, recognizing the necessity to preserve the “powerful unity” of AA in the face of “ever pressing questions of leadership, money, and authority.”

THE AA TRADITIONS AND THE PREAMBLE

In response to these pressing questions, Bill wrote the “Twelve Suggested Points for AA Tradition,” laying out the framework of what would become the Traditions. The April 1946 issue of Grapevine published this historic piece. In subsequent articles Bill examined individual Traditions — for example, the principles behind the “safe use of money” in the Fellowship (Tradition Seven), good public relations policy (Tradition Eleven), and the practical and spiritual aspects of anonymity (Tradition Twelve).

As interest grew in the new Fellowship, the Grapevine editors decided to write a brief

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definition to make clear the nature of the Fellowship to both members and nonalcoholics. Thus, the AA Preamble — setting forth in two concise paragraphs what AA is and is not — made its first appearance in the June 1947 issue. It was written by the first editor of the Grapevine, using portions of the Foreword to the first edition of the Big Book. The Preamble was quickly adopted, and today it is an integral part of the format of many AA meetings.

As the Grapevine gained readers, it gained contributors as well, and it was able to trust its pages more and more to the voices of recovering alcoholics. It gradually abandoned book reviews and reprints and general interest articles, and greatly reduced the articles written by nonalcoholics.

Later issues of the Grapevine reported on AA history in the making. In December 1950, Bill and Dr. Bob suggested that the AA membership as a whole should take over the leadership of the Fellowship through a General Service Conference. Over the next five years, while experimental Conferences were held, the Grapevine kept AAs up to date. After 1955, when the Conference became the permanent embodiment of AA service, the magazine began reporting on each annual Conference. The controversial plan to increase the ratio of alcoholics to nonalcoholics on the General Service Board of Trustees was published in the magazine in 1966, and voted into being that year by the 16th Conference.

AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL

The Grapevine has continued to mark significant happenings as the Fellowship has matured and settled in. Since the January 1949 issue, the magazine has been known as “the international monthly journal of Alcoholics Anonymous,” and all the International Conventions have been chronicled in its pages. Periodically, the Around AA section brings Grapevine readers up to date on each year’s General Service Conference and other news of interest to the Fellowship as a whole. The June 1985 issue marked AA’s 50th Anniversary, with articles devoted to AA history and the state of AA around the world. In 2000, the magazine described the International Convention in Minneapolis, which celebrated the 65th anniversary of the Program.

In the Grapevine’s very first issue, an editorial by Bill stated the magazine’s goals rather grandly: “May its rays of hope and experience ever fall upon the current of our AA life and one day illumine every dark corner of this alcoholic world.” Yet Bill’s hope came to be. The magazine is now read all over the world, sent to 115,000-plus AAs, AA groups, and nonalcoholics.

The history of the Grapevine is the history of the growth of AA — from its early struggles for survival to the worldwide Fellowship it is today, undergoing the struggles associated with success and growth. Throughout its history, it has been what Bill W. once imagined it to be: simply, the voice of AA. Here alcoholics hare again and again the miracle of their transformation.

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How The AA Grapevine Carries the Message

In the fourth issue of the Grapevine, in September 1944, the editors put forth a few simple points of policy and declared that they were “dedicated to furthering, to the best of their abilities, the philosophy of life and action laid down in the Twelve Steps of AA.” This simple policy has enabled the Grapevine to carry the message of Alcoholics Anonymous successfully for about 60 years.

WITHIN AA

FOR TWELFTH-STEPPING — Grapevine articles are direct and personal; they cover a wide range of experiences, geographic areas, and points of view. Like a meeting, the Grapevine tells what AA experience, strength, and hope are like on a day-to-day basis — from problems solved to emotional and spiritual healing effected. As a monthly magazine, the Grapevine is the only AA literature that offers a month-by-month picture of the Fellowship. Articles on the Twelve Steps, the Twelve Traditions, and AA history help ground newcomers or returnees in basic AA, while articles on the importance of sponsorship, home groups, and service offer them practical ways to stay sober.

Many AAs use the magazine in twelfth-step work: After subscribers read the latest issue, they pass it along; others use subscriptions as gifts to sponsees or newcomers. A monthly Grapevine is a regular reminder of living sober, even if the newcomer slips; as one Grapevine representative put it, “The Grapevine keeps coming, even when the alcoholic doesn’t.”

To STRENGTHEN INDIVIDUAL SOBRIETY — Readers often use the Grapevine as a portable meeting, taking it with them when they travel or commute to work. The magazine is a meeting in print on vacations, business or family trips, when live meetings are not always available.

FOR MEETINGS — The Grapevine is an excellent basic resource since each issue reprints essential AA texts: the Steps, Traditions, Preamble, Serenity Prayer, and Responsibility Declaration. Discussion topics culled from each issue form the basis for many discussion groups.

FOR LONERS, HOMERS, AND INTERNATIONALISTS — AAs who can’t get to meetings often rely on the Grapevine (along with correspondence and GSO bulletins) for their AA sharing.

As AN AA “FORUM” — Matters of importance to AA as a whole — for example, Conference Actions and international AA activities — are reported in the magazine. Concerns about current issues — the roles of old-timers and young people, cross-addiction, special interest groups, and the effect of treatment centers — are also aired. Because the Grapevine reflects AA’s diversity, readers can learn how members in other parts of the country and the world are dealing with changing times. TO THE SUFFERING ALCOHOLIC

By June 1947, the Grapevine reported, AAs had begun a movement to get the magazine into prisons nationwide. For years, AA service committees on correctional facilities, as well as

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those on public information, cooperation with the professional community, and treatment facilities have used the magazine in their work with active alcoholics. Members and groups often give subscriptions to local prisons, hospitals, treatment centers, and the magazine is often found in the waiting rooms of those who treat alcoholics — doctors and lawyers, for example. The Grapevine gives new and prospective members a chance to get acquainted with AA in a low-key, no-pressure way — in private. It often helps people make a more comfortable transition between AA and a treatment or correctional facility.

“A Lot of Rubbish” At a regional forum workshop, a young m an shared the fact that two years p reviously h e had picked up a copy of the Grapevine off a prison guard’s desk. H e took it back to his cell, where his first reaction was that it w as a lot o f rubbish. H e becam e so furious with it that he threw it against the wall. He later realized that the articles w ere about him. As a result, he joined our Fellowship. He was attending that w orkshop to get information about becoming a GvR for his group.

TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC

Through its direct, first-person stories, the Grapevine helps inform the general public and members of the professional community about the way AA members stay sober. Copies and subscriptions donated to schools and libraries are an important part of this outreach.

An AA member whose work frequently brings him into contact with professionals who work with alcoholics says this about the Grapevine: “Whenever I speak to a group of professionals, I tell them they need the Grapevine in order to understand AA. These are busy people, and they don’t often have time to attend open meetings. But for only $18.00 a year ($15.00 plus $3.00 postage) and about 45 minutes of reading time every month, at their leisure, they can get a picture of AA as it is lived today.”

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The AA Grapevine and General Service Conference

Since each issue of the Grapevine cannot go through the Conference-approval process, the Conference recognizes the Grapevine as the international journal of Alcoholics Anonymous. The Conference Charter guarantees the right of the Grapevine editor to accept or reject material for publication. There is a Conference Committee on the Grapevine, formed in 1954, and any Grapevine matter of importance to the Fellowship as a whole is brought to the Conference through that committee. Grapevine staff members and directors are voting members of the Conference. Over the years, the Conference has been thoroughly supportive of the Grapevine. Here are a number of its recommendations.

1959 Recommended that state and area conferences be encouraged to have local Grapevine representatives in attendance to encourage subscriptions to groups, and that the Grapevine office prepare material to be made available for these representatives, to be used as display material.

1968 Recommended that the Grapevine, being the voice of individual AA members, continue to publish the opinions of AA members, provided, however, that the Grapevine does not add its editorial endorsement to articles, and that it states that the opinions expressed therein are not necessarily those of the Grapevine.

1969 It was recommended that AA World Services Inc. and the AA Grapevine Inc., with the primary purpose of the Fellowship foremost in mind, study their efforts in each other’s behalf and extend to each other the fullest cooperation in making the Fellowship aware of the tools of AA. That all delegates consider it a part of their responsibility to inform the Fellowship about the Grapevine as a tool of sobriety, either through their own efforts or by recruiting others.

1974 Asked delegates to carry back to their areas a proposal that groups institute the practice of giving birthday or anniversary gift subscriptions, with which the Grapevine staff would mail appropriate greeting cards.

1975 Recommended that delegates communicate with the publishers of AA newsletters in their areas, urging them to use Grapevine blurbs, discussion topics, or other notices about the Grapevine regularly in their newsletters.

1979 Grapevine Representatives recommend to their groups that they sponsor subscriptions for institutions, treatment facilities, and professionals being “sponsored.”

1980 Recommended that groups make every effort to introduce newcomers to the Grapevine as one of our best tools in sobriety.

1987 Recommended that delegates focus their efforts on the district service structure as a means of reaching individual groups, in order to make every group aware of the value of the Grapevine as a recovery tool. Recommended that delegates and area Grapevine chairpersons

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be encouraged to invite Grapevine staff personnel to attend local, area, and regional conventions, forums, andAA gatherings.

1988 Recommended that the Grapevine proceed with publication of Bill W.’s collected Grapevine writings, with brief factual introductory material. Recommended that, in order to encourage full participation, the Grapevine consider establishing a Grapevine awareness month and areas continue to hold Grapevine workshops, Grape-a-thons, and Grapevine meetings.

1989 Recommended that the Grapevine develop an ongoing AA history section, drawing on. archival material, including area and regional histories. Recommended that delegates clarify in their areas the fact that the magazine is supported by subscription income and does not accept group contributions to cover operating expenses.

1991 Recommended that The Grapevine discontinue publishing the “About Alcoholism” section.

1992 Recommended that the Grapevine Corporate offer to the Conference Grapevine Committee on an ongoing basis a general list of proposed related items at least two years in advance of possible production, in order that the Conference could offer any guidance or register any disapproval they might have. Final approval for the completed items would rest with the Grapevine Corporate Board.

1994 It was recommended that all AA members be strongly urged to work toward the goal that the AA Grapevine magazine be self-supporting through the sale of magazine subscriptions.

1997 That the manuscript providing basic information on the AA Grapevine magazine and its place in Alcoholics Anonymous be produced as a pamphlet.

1999 The committee would like to encourage areas to purchase Grapevine and La Viña subscriptions and back issues for direct placement in treatment centers and correctional facilities.

Magazines Patterned After The Grapevine

Quite a few AA entities in other countries have used the Grapevine as the prototype for their own AA magazines. Often, these efforts start off with a heavy reliance on the Grapevine for translated articles, and for artwork, cartoons, and jokes. Then, as the individual publications mature and develop material of their own, their reliance on the Grapevine diminishes, and their own unique AA personalities begin to shine through. About two dozen AA magazines are now published around the world, including Scotland’s Roundabout, Mexico’s Plenitud, South Africa’s Regmaker, French Canada’s La Vigne, Japan’s Box 916, and Russia’s Alcoholic

© AA Grapevine, Inc. 2002

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