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How were Akron and New York different in the early years?

In short:

  • Akron was A.A.'s first group, formed in 1935 around Dr. Bob, and for its first years it was the larger and more successful of the two. New York, around Bill W., took shape more slowly; for a long time the people he took into his Brooklyn home stayed drunk.
  • New York's alcoholics left the Oxford Group in 1937. Akron's stayed inside it, meeting at the home of T. Henry and Clarace Williams, until late 1939. It had its own ways, hospitalizing prospects and having them make a formal "surrender" on their knees, and it kept the Oxford Group's morning quiet time, Bible reading and "absolutes."
  • When the Big Book was written, Bill said Akron gave him "the warmest support" while New York gave the drafts "a real mauling," and the two groups favored different titles. A later history adds that Akron had its own quarrels over the book.
  • The 1939 Big Book itself says the same thing was happening in the East "under only slightly different conditions." The sources treat it as one fellowship with two centers.

What the 1939 Big Book says

Chapter 11, "A Vision for You," describes the "western city" (Akron) without naming it. After the first three, "A year and six months later these three had succeeded with seven more." (p. 159). A weekly meeting began, open to anyone interested in a spiritual way of life (pp. 159–160), and a couple "placed their large home at the disposal of this strangely assorted crowd" (p. 160). By 1939 that house drew sixty or eighty a week, and a community thirty miles away had fifteen members (p. 161).

Then: "Under only slightly different conditions, the same thing is taking place in many eastern cities." (p. 161). In one of them was a hospital where a doctor sent them patients, and there were informal meetings "where you may now see scores of members" (p. 162). "There is a good bit of travel between East and West and we foresee a great increase in this helpful interchange." (p. 162).

The 1955 Foreword to the Second Edition gives the order: the first group formed at Akron in the summer of 1935, "though no one realized it at the time" (p. xvii); "A second small group promptly took shape at New York" (p. xvii), followed by Cleveland.

New York's slow start (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957)

Bill had no success in New York until he came home from Akron in September 1935 (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). He and Lois filled their Clinton Street house with alcoholics and, he says, did not sober up a single one, though "we did pick up a lot of knowledge" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). The first to recover were Henry P. and Fitz M. (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Meanwhile, "Out in Akron, in the houses of Dr. Bob and Wally, the home-sobering treatment fared better." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). See How did A.A. grow from two people?

The Oxford Group difference

The New Yorkers parted from the Oxford Groups in the latter part of 1937 (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). In Akron the alcoholics went on meeting with Oxford Groupers at the Williamses' house until "well after the A.A. book was published" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Writing of the fall of 1938, Bill says that "In important matters there was still considerable disagreement" between the Eastern and Midwestern viewpoints (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957): Akron still talked of the four absolutes, which New York had dropped (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). See What did early A.A. take from the Oxford Group, and why did it separate?

Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers (1980) describes the Akron practice. Prospects were hospitalized for five to eight days (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980) and had to make a "surrender," kneeling and praying in front of other members; one member recalled that "You couldn't go to a meeting until you did it." (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). Morning quiet time and spiritual reading were emphasized (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). Akron members also told less of their drinking histories at meetings; one recalled that "Bill was in favor of having an A.A. member qualify or tell how he became an alcoholic" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).

The book: support and argument

  • The 1937 plan. When Bill and Dr. Bob put the idea of a book, hospitals and paid missionaries to eighteen Akron members, the members "really did work us over," and it passed by the barest majority (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Back home, "Our little New York group gave me more encouragement than had the Akronites." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).
  • The chapters. Drafts went to Dr. Bob in Akron, "where we had nothing but the warmest support," while in New York the chapters "got a real mauling" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Akronites liked the new Steps; in New York the debate "was doubled and redoubled" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).
  • The stories. Akron, the larger group with more case histories, produced eighteen stories with the help of a former newspaperman, Jim S.; New York produced ten, written by the members themselves (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).
  • The title. New York leaned to "Alcoholics Anonymous"; in Akron a considerable majority favored "The Way Out" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). See How did Alcoholics Anonymous get its name? Was "The Way Out" the title?

Where the sources differ

  • Akron and the book. Bill (1957) recalls only warm support from Akron (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers (1980) says some Akron members "wanted no part of the book" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980), quotes Dorothy S. M.: "For a time, we thought the whole Akron group might break up over the book." (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980), and comments that Bill "might have been assuming that his part of the stove was warmer." (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).
  • Why New York argued more. Pass It On (1984) suggests Akron members may have been more attuned to Bill's spiritual ideas and Dr. Bob's influence carried them, while New York had more agnostics and skeptics (Pass It On, 1984). That is the 1984 authors' guess; the earlier texts don't give a reason.
  • The meditation. Bill later wondered why Wally and Annabelle G. sobered up so many in their Akron home while he and Lois sobered none in theirs. He wasn't sure: "Maybe they just hit the right cases." (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). But he also said, "I sort of always felt that something was lost from A.A. when we stopped emphasizing the morning meditation." (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). The same book adds that "it was all one Fellowship" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Pages Date
Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 11, "A Vision for You" 159–162 1939
Foreword to the Second Edition xvii 1955
A.A. Comes of Age — 1957
Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers — 1980
Pass It On — 1984

Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001). Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book, A.A. Comes of Age, Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers and Pass It On are © A.A. World Services, Inc.*

These pages answer questions about A.A. from A.A.'s own published literature, read in full, with every quote checked word for word against the page it cites. Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. What we read, and when each source was written.