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Was there a draft of the Big Book before 1939?

In short:

  • Yes. Bill W. wrote the chapters through 1938, reading them to the New York group and sending them to Dr. Bob in Akron for comment. The first two chapters were copied in mid-1938 to use in a fund-raising prospectus.
  • When text and stories were done, about the end of January 1939, 400 copies of the whole book were duplicated and sent out for comment, each stamped "Loan Copy." Bill calls them mimeographs; later books call them Multilith copies.
  • The comments changed the book. A psychiatrist persuaded Bill to turn "you must" into "we ought," a Catholic committee suggested that "Heaven" at the end of Bill's story become "Utopia," and Bill's printer's copy was a marked-up loan copy with many small corrections. A 1984 biography adds that a professional editor cut the manuscript by at least a third.
  • No copy of any draft is in our sources, so it can't show what the earlier versions said beyond these reported changes.

What the Big Book itself shows

The book points to its own revisions only after publication. Appendix II says "our first printing gave many readers the impression" that a spiritual experience had to be sudden and spectacular (p. 567), and was added to correct that. The Foreword to the First Edition in today's book is printed "as it appeared in the first printing of the first edition in 1939" (p. xiii). Bill's story ends: "Most of us feel we need look no further for Utopia." (p. 16), the word the Catholic reviewers suggested (see below). See What changed between the four editions of the Big Book?

The working drafts (1938)

Bill began the book in the spring of 1938 (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). By the time the fund-raising campaign was under way he had written his own story and roughed out the second chapter; "Mimeographed copies of these two chapters were part of the paraphernalia for the money-raising operation" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). P-44 (Bill, describing events through 1955) says the same: copies of the two chapters "were used as part of the prospectus" (P-44). A Harper editor read those two chapters and offered to publish (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). See How was the Big Book paid for and published (Works Publishing)?

Bill dictated rough drafts to the secretary, Ruth Hock, read each chapter at the weekly New York meeting, and sent copies to Dr. Bob in Akron (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). In New York the chapters "got a real mauling," and he redictated them again and again (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). In Akron, Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers (1980) says, one member remembered going over drafts with Dr. Bob among a "chosen few," while another remembered them being read at the Akron meeting (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).

The 400 loan copies (early 1939)

With the text and stories finished in late January 1939, someone asked: "How do we know for sure that this book will be widely acceptable to everybody?" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). So "Four hundred mimeograph copies of the book were made and sent to everyone we could think of who might be concerned with the problem of alcoholism." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). "Each mimeograph was stamped 'Loan Copy' in order to protect our coming copyright." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). While they waited, the arguments over the title and the Twelve Steps went on (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

What came back (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957): - A Montclair psychiatrist, Dr. Howard, "pointed out that the text of our book was too full of the words 'you' and 'must.'" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). The aim was "to put our fellowship on a 'we ought' basis instead of a 'you must' basis." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Bill gave in, and Dr. Silkworth and Dr. Tiebout gave similar advice (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). - Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick saw a prepublication copy early in 1939 and promised a review (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). - The Catholic Committee on Publications in New York suggested improvements to the section on meditation and prayer, and one real change, at the end of Bill's story: "Don't you think that Bill W. could change that word 'Heaven' to 'Utopia'?" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

The printer's copy was one of the mimeographs with all the corrections written in by Henry P. (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). There were "few large changes but the small ones were very numerous" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

Some loan copies went on doing their work. Dr. Tiebout gave one to his patient Marty, who after a second reading came to a meeting (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Bill handed one to a lawyer in Cleveland, whose client read it and went to Akron (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers says a member's sister "went to Chicago with a Multilith copy of the Big Book" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980), which led to a woman member there.

Pass It On (1984)

Pass It On says the first two chapters "were Multilithed immediately" for the 1938 money-raising (Pass It On, 1984), and that "By the end of January 1939, the manuscript was ready for preliminary distribution; 400 copies were Multilithed" (Pass It On, 1984). It adds details not in Bill's 1957 account: - "The Doctor's Opinion" was added after Dr. Esther Richards of Johns Hopkins suggested an introduction by a leading physician (Pass It On, 1984). See What is "The Doctor's Opinion," and who wrote it? - "Final editing of the book was done by Tom Uzzell" of New York University, who "cut the book by at least a third" (Pass It On, 1984), "some say half," from 800 pages to 400 (Pass It On, 1984). - A line in Chapter 5 now reading "followed our path" had read "directions" in the earlier manuscript (Pass It On, 1984).

Where the sources differ

  • Mimeograph or Multilith. Bill (1957) and P-44 say mimeographed (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957; P-44); Pass It On and Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers say Multilith (Pass It On, 1984; Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). Both are duplicating processes; the number, 400, agrees.
  • How much was cut. Bill (1957) mentions only many small corrections (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957); Pass It On reports a cut of a third or more by an outside editor (Pass It On, 1984). Our sources have no draft to check either.
  • Earlier wording. The only earlier wordings our sources reports are "Heaven" for "Utopia" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957), "you must" for "we ought" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957), "directions" for "path" (Pass It On, 1984), and the reconstructed first draft of the Steps (see How were the Twelve Steps written?). Claims about other passages in a pre-publication manuscript can't be confirmed from our sources.

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Pages Date
Alcoholics Anonymous, Foreword to the First Edition; "Bill's Story" xiii, 16 1939
Appendix II, "Spiritual Experience" 567 after the first printing; in the appendices since 1955
P-44, A.A.'s Legacy of Service (Bill W.) — describes events through 1955; pamphlet © 2018
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, P-44, 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.