#1: – In this first episode of “Big Book History,” William Schaberg (the author of Writing the Big Book: The Creation of A.A.) explores the time, the place and the personalities behind the writing of the first two Forewords to be found in the book Alcoholics Anonymous – the first one published in 1939 and the second in 1955.
As preliminaries to later observations in this episode (and in the episodes to follow), Schaberg introduces Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous and discusses his unreliability as an accurate historical witness. Bill also takes some time to introduce Hank Parkhurst, Wilson’s right-hand man in New York throughout the late 1930s, and establishes his importance not only to this week’s story, but also to many of the episodes to follow.
Schaberg then takes a look at some the fascinating things to be discovered by carefully and critically reading those Forewords – including some of the factual errors to be found there and his understanding of how and why they had made their way into the text.
#2: The Doctor’s Opinion – In episode two, Schaberg (the author of Writing the Big Book: The Creation of A.A.) presents some detailed information on Dr. Silkworth – the man who wrote most of this chapter – along with the back story leading up to the chapter’s inclusion in the Big Book before going on to offer his analysis of that chapter. As the presentation ends, Schaberg attempts to address what he calls the two “burning” questions about “The Doctor’s Opinion” – namely why Silkworth’s name was not printed at the end of the chapter in the first edition of the book and why the numbering was changed to roman numerals in the 1955 second edition printing.
#3: Bill’s Story – In this presentation, William Schaberg, author of “Writing the Big Book,” once again dives into the archival material – comparing the three original versions of “Bill’s Story” and then showing how that “Story” was edited and changed in both the Multilith Copy and before it went to press in the book “Alcoholics Anonymous” in April of 1939. He follows this with his observations on four problematic elements to be found in “Bill’s Story” as it was finally published.
#4: There Is A Solution – In this presentation, William Schaberg, author of “Writing the Big Book,” presents a host of archival evidence to track the writing and editing of this chapter from June 1938 (when it was first written) to April 1939 (when if was finally published). What started out as a 5,810 word document was reduced – after successive edits by Bill Wilson, Hank Parkhurst, Janet Blair and the suggestions offered by the many readers of the pre-publication Multilith Copy – to just 3,510 words. Schaberg concludes by offering his own opinions on why he considers this to be perhaps the most brilliant thing Bill Wilson ever wrote.
#5: More About Alcoholism – In this presentation, William Schaberg, author of “Writing the Big Book,” spends some time on the events that transpired in the three months between the writing of “There Is A Solution” and “More About Alcoholism.” He then points out how this chapter is basically a further elaboration on the diagnosis that Bill Wilson had offered in that earlier chapter – namely, that if you are a “real” alcoholic you have NO defense against picking up the first drink. Schaberg also shows the changes made to this chapter from its first draft in late-September 1938 to its publication in the Big Book on April 10, 1939.
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#14: Reading Chapter 1 “Challenging the Creation Myths” – Bill Schaberg reads “Challenging the Creation Myths,” the first chapter of his “WRITING THE BIG BOOK: The Creation of A.A.”
Bill is joined in this presentation by GiGi reading the footnotes and Jim who reads the longer quoted passages.
#15: Changing the Big Book (1938-1947) – Bill Schaberg explores the fascinating story of the many changes made to the text of the Big Book between 1938 (when the first drafts were written) and 1947 (when the word “ex-alcoholic” was dropped from the 11th printing of the 1st edition).
#16: Creating a Story – The 6 Step Myth – Bill Schaberg reviews Bill Wilson’s unreliability as a historian and then goes on to debunk his story of the Six Step Program – which Wilson claimed was the “pretty consistent procedure” for recovery before the Twelve Steps were written.
Having eliminated those alleged Six Steps as the forerunner and source of the Twelve Steps, Schaberg then presents extensive evidence to support his contention that the Twelve Steps – rather than being an encapsulation of the collective experience of early A.A. members – were instead a summary of Bill Wilson’s own experience as he got sober.
#17: Hank Parkhurst, the Co-Founder Who Drank – Schaberg introduces Hank Parkhurst and explains – step by step – his important contributions to the early development of A.A. and, most especially, his critical and essential role in the writing and publication of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous.
#18: Bill’s Vision and the Ever-Changing Plan – Stepping back from his typical focus on the 18-month period from October 1937 to April 1939, Schaberg expands the scope a bit to consider what was going on in the Fellowship from December 1934 to 1939 – a time that Bill Wilson called “The Flying-Blind Period.” In this presentation, Schaberg underlines just how “blind” that period actually was and how clueless all the main participants were about where they were going to finally end up in mid-1939. Once again, this is a “challenge the creation myths” presentation (that also being the title of the first chapter in Schaberg’s “Writing the Big Book”), encouraging those watching to set aside many of the ‘hallowed’ stories they have so often heard about early A.A. history and inviting them to take an “unfiltered” look at what the facts actually tell us about that time.
Big Book History #21: from Religious to Spiritual – A Historical Evolution (1934-1941) Once again taking a slightly broader look at A.A. history than what was presented in his book, “Writing the Big Book: The Creation of A.A.”, William Schaberg takes on what he considers to be the most fallacious myth regarding early A.A. history – namely that when Bill Wilson left Towns Hospital after his ‘white light’ experience, he was already preaching a very liberal version of A.A.’s approach to spirituality based on William James’ “Varieties of Religious Experience” and Ebby Thacher’s suggestion that he ‘choose his own conception of God’.