{"id":753,"date":"2018-09-06T21:40:40","date_gmt":"2018-09-06T21:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/alcoholstudies-archives\/?p=753"},"modified":"2023-03-07T01:55:35","modified_gmt":"2023-03-07T01:55:35","slug":"the-big-book-on-the-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/alcoholstudies-archives\/the-big-book-on-the-move\/","title":{"rendered":"The Big Book on the Move"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Brunswick Libraries Acquire \u201cThe Big Book\u201d<\/h3>\n

\"The<\/a>The New Brunswick Libraries has acquired a first edition of \u201cThe Big Book,\u201d the popular name for Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism, <\/em>written by the A.A. founder, Bill Wilson (or Bill W).
\nSince it was first published in 1939, in an edition of 4,650 copies, \u201cThe Big Book\u201d has sold over 30 million copies, making it one of the best-selling regularly updated books of all time. The Library of Congress named it one of the eighty-eight \u201cBooks that Shaped America.\u201d The fellowship, Alcoholics Anonymous, took its name from the book\u2019s title.<\/p>\n

The Rutgers copy of \u201cThe Big Book,\u201d so called for the thickness of the paper in the original edition, was probably the one reviewed by E.M. Jellinek<\/a> through a project, also launched in 1939, funded by a Carnegie Corporation grant that essentially birthed the field of alcohol studies. As Jellinek reflected in a piece written for AA Today<\/em>,<\/p>\n

One day that year, I found on my desk a book with a yellow and red dust cover. Its title was Alcoholics Anonymous. With a sigh, picked it up and said to myself: \u2018some more crank stuff.\u2019 But I hardly read a few pages when I realized that I had one of the precious gems before me.<\/em><\/p>\n

After the Center of Alcohol Studies (CAS) moved from Yale to Rutgers in 1962, the book became part of the McCarthy Collection, named after Raymond McCarthy<\/a>, the Director of Education and Training at CAS. The annotations are believed to be in his hand.<\/p>\n

An unassuming trade book bound in red cloth, \u201cThe Big Book\u201d hardly resembles the \u201cprecious gem\u201d it is. From across the room, it might be mistaken for a copy of Webster\u2019s Desk Dictionary.<\/em> However, due to its historical significance, copies of the first edition regularly sell for five and even six figures. For comparison, \u00a0a copy of Webster\u2019s A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, <\/em>\u00a0a first ed. of Webster\u2019s first dictionary (1806), is priced at $4,063, a Babylonian clay tablet from Syria, ca. 1600-1500 BC, which provides a list of fish used for teaching purposes, is valued at $1,500-$2,500 and a Coptic-Greek glossary, written on vellum in Egypt in the sixth or seventh century, likely intended for use by a professional scribe in the civil service, estimated at between $12,000 and $18,000. Moreover, the profound emotion \u201cThe Big Book\u201d stirs in the A.A. fellowship surpasses the admiration of even the most devoted logophile.<\/p>\n

William Bejarano, former Senior Information Specialist at CAS with the CAS Education & Training Division, recalls that, when preparing for its annual Summer School of Addiction Studies, which traditionally includes an open Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, \u201cJohn,\u201d who was running the meeting, asked if the rumor that the Center owned a copy of \u201cThe Big Book\u201d was true, and if he might see it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were taken aback by his response \u2014 jaw agape, he treated the item almost as a sacred text, going so far as to kiss the cover and speak in hushed tones.\u201d<\/p>\n

After being cataloged and preserved in a conservation housing, \u201cThe Big Book\u201d will safely repose in Special Collections and University Archives, along with The King James Bible, <\/em>and the edition princeps <\/em>of Homer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Further reading:<\/h4>\n

Bejarano, W., & Ward, J. (2015). AA and the Center of Alcohol Studies: Our story. SALIS News, 35<\/em>(3), 10-12.<\/p>\n

Bejarano, W. (2015). CAS Archives: A First Edition of the AA \u201cBig Book\u201d.<\/a> CAS Information Services Newsletter<\/em>, 9(3) 6-10.<\/p>\n

Ward, J. H., Bejarano, W. & Allred, N. (2016). Reading for Recovery (R4R): Bibliotherapy for addictions. Substance Abuse Library and Information Studies, 3,<\/em> 50-69.<\/p>\n

\n

Credits<\/h4>\n

Written by Michael Joseph and Judit Ward,<\/em> originally published in The Agenda<\/em>. Rutgers University Libraries Faculty and Staff Newsletter. Posted on August 30, 2018.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Brunswick Libraries Acquire \u201cThe Big Book\u201d The New Brunswick Libraries has acquired a first edition of \u201cThe Big Book,\u201d the popular name for Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":447,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alcohol-history","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe Big Book on the Move - Alcohol Studies Archives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/alcoholstudies-archives\/the-big-book-on-the-move\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Big Book on the Move - 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