The Book That Started It All: The Original Working Manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous
One of the newest additions to the CAS Library’s collection is The Book That Started It All: The Original Working Manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous. Published by Hazelden in 2010, the centerpiece of this volume is a high-definition scan of the 170 page manuscript of AA’s celebrated “Big Book.”
Prepared over the course of approximately six weeks in the early months of 1939, the manuscript “dramatically captures the controversy and creativity that went into producing the book that would explain AA’s program of recovery to the world” (The book that started it all, 2010, p.1). Every page bears witness to this formative struggle, with many featuring a dozen or more corrections and additions made in various hands. It is fascinating to see how a famous phrase came to bear, or observe how minor revisions in language lead to profound changes in effect, for example the conscious decision of the authors to substitute softer, more suggestive language in place of the directive formulations of the original: “You must find Him now!” becomes “May you find Him now!”, etc. (The book that started it all, 2010, p.4). Flipping through the pages, the reader truly gets a sense of the work coming to life.
In addition to the manuscript itself, the volume also includes two introductory essays, an annotated list of edits made to the manuscript, a transcript of a speech on the origins of the book given by AA founder Bill Wilson in 1954, and a brief publishing history of Alcoholics Anonymous. Taken together, these provide readers with an illuminating and comprehensive textual history of one of the seminal works in alcohol literature.
True to the tradition of AA, all of the writers and contributors to the volume have chosen to remain anonymous. So, too, has the current owner of the manuscript, who generously permitted its reproduction here for the first time. One thing that is known about the owner, however, is that they acquired the manuscript at a Sotheby’s auction in 2007 for $850,000 (three years earlier it had sold for an even steeper $1.56 million). For those with more modest means, but who are nevertheless interested in seeing this remarkable document for themselves, we invite you to stop by the CAS Library to check out its facsimile reproduction in The Book That Started It All: The Original Working Manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous.