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What is in the Big Book's appendices, and when was each added?

In short:

  • The fourth edition has seven appendices on pp. 561–575: I "The A.A. Tradition," II "Spiritual Experience," III "The Medical View on A.A.," IV "The Lasker Award," V "The Religious View on A.A.," VI "How to Get in Touch With A.A." and VII "Twelve Concepts (Short Form)" (p. 561).
  • None of them is part of the 1939 text. The Preface says the second edition (1955) "added the appendices, the Twelve Traditions, and the directions for getting in touch with A.A." (p. xi), and that "This fourth edition includes the Twelve Concepts for World Service" (p. xii), which are Appendix VII (p. 574). The copyright page dates the fourth edition 2001 (p. iv).
  • Two of them (I and VII) are A.A.'s own principles. One (II) is A.A.'s own clarification of the spiritual experience. Three (III, IV, V) collect what doctors, a public health body and clergy said about A.A. One (VI) is contact information.
  • Some appendices carry later details inside them: the 1946 Long Form uses the board's post-1954 name, Appendix V has a footnote about a death in 1960, and Appendix VI gives websites. So today's wording isn't all from 1946 or 1955, and our sources don't date every change.

Dating them: what the book itself says

The Preface (fourth edition) is the only place the book dates the appendices as a group: "The second edition added the appendices, the Twelve Traditions, and the directions for getting in touch with A.A." (p. xi). Of the fourth edition it says: "This fourth edition includes the Twelve Concepts for World Service" (p. xii).

The program the Big Book teaches is in the first 164 pages, written in 1939. The appendices come after the personal stories and are later additions. See: What changed between the four editions of the Big Book?

The seven appendices, one at a time

I. The A.A. Tradition (pp. 561–566). A short introduction says the Traditions are, "we A.A.'s believe, the best answers that our experience has yet given" to how A.A. can best function and stay whole (p. 561). Then the Twelve Traditions in their short form, "the form in general use today" (p. 561), on p. 562. Then the Long Form on pp. 563–566, which the introduction calls the "original" Traditions "as first printed in 1946" (p. 561), reproduced because it is "more explicit and of possible historic value" (p. 561). The Long Form is the 1946 text, but this printing has been brought up to date in small ways. For example, Tradition Four now refers to "the trustees of the General Service Board" (p. 563), the name the Alcoholic Foundation took in 1954 (P-17). See: Where are the Traditions in the Big Book? · What is the Long Form, and why read it instead of the short form?

II. Spiritual Experience (pp. 567–568). A.A.'s own correction of a misreading. It says "our first printing gave many readers the impression" (p. 567) that the personality change had to be sudden and spectacular, and that this was wrong. Most experiences are of the "educational variety" that "develop slowly over a period of time" (p. 567), a phrase taken from William James. It names "Willingness, honesty and open mindedness" (p. 568) as the essentials, and closes with the "contempt prior to investigation" line it credits to Herbert Spencer (p. 568). Because it looks back on the first printing, it was written after 1939. The Preface places it with the appendices in the 1955 edition, and our sources don't give an earlier date. Chapters 2 and 4 send the reader to it in footnotes (pp. 25, 27, 47). See: What is the "spiritual awakening" in Step 12? · Where is "contempt prior to investigation," and who does the Big Book say said it?

III. The Medical View on A.A. (pp. 569–570). Excerpts from doctors. A footnote dates the first set to the 1944 annual meeting of the Medical Society of the State of New York, "where a paper on A.A. was read" (p. 569): Dr. Foster Kennedy, Dr. G. Kirby Collier and Dr. Harry M. Tiebout. Then Dr. W. W. Bauer on an American Medical Association broadcast in 1946, and Dr. John F. Stouffer of Philadelphia General Hospital (p. 570). It ends with the American Psychiatric Association's 1949 request for a paper by "one of the older members" (p. 570) and points to the pamphlet "Three Talks to Medical Societies by Bill W." (p. 570). In A.A. Comes of Age (1957), Bill says he was the one who read the 1944 and 1949 papers (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). The appendix doesn't name him as the reader, though the pamphlet it points to carries his name.

IV. The Lasker Award (p. 571). The 1951 citation from the American Public Health Association, "in part" (p. 571). It praises A.A.'s "unique and highly successful approach" to alcoholism (p. 571) and says that "In emphasizing alcoholism as an illness, the social stigma associated with this condition is being blotted out" (p. 571). A.A. Comes of Age (1957) prints a longer text of the citation as its own Appendix D, with figures the Big Book leaves out, such as recovery "to more than 120,000 chronic drinkers" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

V. The Religious View on A.A. (p. 572). One page saying that "Clergymen of practically every denomination have given A.A. their blessing." (p. 572). It quotes three: Father Edward Dowling, S.J., an Episcopal magazine, The Living Church, and Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick at the Rockefeller dinner. A footnote says Father Ed "died in the spring of 1960" (p. 572), so that footnote, at least, is later than 1960. See: What does Appendix V, "The Religious View on A.A.," say?

VI. How to Get in Touch With A.A. (p. 573). Practical directions: local groups, intergroup offices, the General Service Office in New York, the website, the Box 459 address, and Al-Anon for relatives and friends (Appendix VI, p. 573). This is the appendix that changes most with time. Its mention of "www.aa.org" (Appendix VI, p. 573) can't be from 1955. Chapter 10 points the reader to it in a footnote (p. 150). See: Is Al-Anon part of A.A.?

VII. Twelve Concepts (Short Form) (pp. 574–575). The Concepts for World Service, "Written by co-founder Bill W. in 1962" (p. 574), in the short form "approved by the 1971 General Service Conference" (p. 574). They apply to A.A.'s service structure, not to personal recovery (p. 574). The Preface lists them with the fourth edition's changes (p. xii). See: What are the Twelve Concepts, and why were they written?

What our sources don't settle

  • Exactly when each appendix was written. Apart from the Preface's general statement (p. xi) and its note that the fourth edition (2001, p. iv) includes the Concepts (p. xii), the book doesn't date them one by one. The dates inside them (1944, 1946, 1949, 1951, 1960, 1962, 1971) tell you when their material is from, not when each page was set.
  • Changes in later printings. The board's name in the Long Form shows the 1946 text was updated after 1954; the Dowling footnote (1960) and the websites (www.aa.org, www.al-anon.org) show the appendices were updated after 1955. Our sources don't record when each change was made.
  • Sources for the outside quotations. Appendices III, IV and V give the speaker and sometimes the occasion, but not a full citation. Our sources confirm some of the occasions, in A.A. Comes of Age: the 1944 medical society meeting , the Lasker Award of 1951 and the Rockefeller dinner of February 8, 1940 . It doesn't confirm all of them.

Read it yourself

All free from A.A.:

Sources

Source Pages Date
Alcoholics Anonymous, Preface xi–xii fourth edition (2001)
Alcoholics Anonymous, copyright page iv fourth edition (2001)
Appendix I, "The A.A. Tradition" (short form and Long Form) 561–566 Long Form 1946; in the book since 1955
Appendix II, "Spiritual Experience" 567–568 after the first printing; in the appendices since 1955 (p. xi)
Appendix III, "The Medical View on A.A." 569–570 material 1944–1949; in the book since 1955
Appendix IV, "The Lasker Award" 571 award 1951; in the book since 1955
Appendix V, "The Religious View on A.A." 572 in the book since 1955; footnote after 1960
Appendix VI, "How to Get in Touch With A.A." 573 added 1955; this wording current
Appendix VII, "Twelve Concepts (Short Form)" 574–575 Concepts 1962, short form 1971; in the book since 2001
Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapters 2, 4, 10 (footnotes) 25, 27, 47, 150 footnotes pointing to the appendices, so later than the appendix they name (exact date not given); 1939 text otherwise
P-17 (footnote on the 1954 renaming) — pamphlet © 2019
A.A. Comes of Age (Bill W.) — 1957

Comes of Age is cited by the file-page markers in our copy (f.), not printed pages.

Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book and A.A. Comes of Age 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.