How about the First Edition of "Alcoholics Anonymous" and particularly the personal stories which have almost all been eliminated from the view of the recovery community and of AAs themselves.
There are three important new developments in the First Edition emphasis, and we have had a role in each of them. Moreover, we are going to make sure that our two summit conferences in September cover this picture from stem to stern. With surprise pieces of evidence you may never have seen.
First, the original Big Book Working Manuscript, titled "The Book That Started It All: The Original Working Manuscrit of "Alcoholics Anonymous" With esays and notes by leading AA historians" (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 2010). Collector Ken Roberts paid almost 1 million dollars for this priceless document at a New York auction. Later he asked Dick B. and Ken B. to work up, and with him on, an essay and explanatory piece on this document. This we did, and it was used by him, by other contributors, and by others to flesh out the historical meaning and place of this priceless document. Hazelden put the item on sale, and it was sold out in about one week. A copy will be on display at each of our Conference Summits - September 17 and 24. You will see the Big Book manuscript before the Big Book was changed prior to printing in 1939!
Second, Dover Publications announces it will publish an inexpensive reprint of the First Edition and release it in September. I (Dick B.) was asked to, and did, write an extensive introduction to this valuable historical piece. And it is part of the First Edition release by Dover. Taken together, the reprint and my introduction will explain why the reprint of the First Edition--with its original personal stories--is historically significant, a vital study piece for those who want to learn and pass on the real history of Alcoholics Anonymous, and part of the current world-wide growth of the Christian Recovery Movements. We will have at least a manuscript copy, and hopefully the actual Dover book reprint on display at each of our Summit Conferences in September.
Third, there is a work-in-progress by the experienced, long-sober, Christian AA Rick S. of California. This is going to be a "Sponsors Guide" to the First Edition. It will have a thorough set of audio tapes--which will be put online for free viewing. It will have an accompanying book with First Edition Pages, explanatory themes for each page, study instructions, and historical notes. These too will be online for free viewing. Rick has been working with Dick B. and Ken B. to produce this important explanatory work that will be the finest, most thorough, most easily understood, line-by-line audio/printed study of the First Edition and three main stories. The rendition will be online free for the viewer. And we hope to have some kind of draft at both of our Summits. We excitedly announce here for the first time that Rick S. has just agreed to participate in the panels at the summits and also man displays of this new piece of work.
In sum, the end result of these three special, surprise, emphases on the Big Book First Edition can usher in a new era of understanding as to how the 1939 Big Book First Edition can be understood for what it was, correlated to the original Akron A.A. fellowship, and annotated with understandable study instructions and historical references that Rick will make alive with his extensive audio presentations.
If there were no other reason for your attending the two summits -- one on September 17 at The Crossing Church in Costa Mesa, and one on September 24 at Golden Hills Community Church in Brentwood, California, this is a compelling reason for your attendance and learning.
You will leave the summits, both of which will be covering the essence today of the Christian recovery movement, with a new understanding of the real history of Alcoholics Anonymous -- a history that spans from the Christian origins of recovery in the New England of the 1850's to 1900; the original program of the Akron A.A. "Christian Fellowship;" the so-called varied, "word-of mouth" six ideas that Bill Wilson used to expand the ideas into the Twelve Steps contained in the First Edition of the Big Book, and a complete picture of the original First Edition of 1939 and how it changed A.A. and became the standard for A.A. recovery all over the world.
Don't miss these vital conferences!
Dick B., Executive Director, International Christian Recovery Coalition,
PO Box 837, Kihei, HI 96753-0837, 808 874 4876
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