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What changed between the four editions of the Big Book?

In short:

  • There have been four editions: 1939, 1955, 1976 and 2001 (p. xi). In all of them the first part of the book, "describing the A.A. recovery program, has been left largely untouched" (p. xi), and "The Doctor's Opinion" has been kept intact (p. xi).
  • The chief change each time was in the personal stories: stories were added, edited and dropped so the book would "represent the current membership" (p. xii) and reach more alcoholics.
  • The 1955 edition also added the appendices, the Twelve Traditions and directions for contacting A.A. (p. xi). The 2001 edition added the Twelve Concepts (p. xii). Each edition added its own foreword.
  • "Largely" is the honest word. Footnotes have been added to the 1939 chapters, and small details in the text follow the edition, such as the number of stories on p. 29. Our sources have only the fourth edition, so it can't show a line-by-line comparison with 1939.

What stayed the same

The Preface to the fourth edition explains why: because the book has become "the basic text for our Society" and helped so many recover, "there exists strong sentiment against any radical changes being made in it" (p. xi). So the program chapters were left largely untouched in the 1955, 1976 and 2001 revisions, and "The Doctor's Opinion" was "kept intact, just as it was originally written in 1939" (p. xi). The Foreword to the First Edition is reprinted "as it appeared in the first printing of the first edition in 1939" (p. xiii).

Later accounts put it more strongly. Bill W., announcing the second edition at the 1955 convention, said "the old familiar text of the book stands unchanged" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Pass It On (1984) says the original text of the first 11 chapters was unchanged in 1955 (Pass It On, 1984). Experience, Strength and Hope (2003) says the first 164 pages "have remained largely unchanged" (Experience, Strength and Hope, 2003). The Preface's "largely" is the more careful word, and the text bears it out (see below).

Edition by edition

First edition, April 1939 (p. xi). Sixteen printings, 1939 to 1955 (p. iv). More than 300,000 copies circulated (p. xi). It even changed between printings: - The title page first described "More Than One Hundred Men," changed by the second printing to "Thousands of Men and Women" (Pass It On, 1984). - One story, "Lone Endeavor," "appeared only in first printing of first edition" (Experience, Strength and Hope, 2003). - Bill (1969) recalled that an early printing "expressed great concern lest we be flooded with more people than we could take care of" (P-53), out of fear that "so-called undesirable people" (P-53) might come, and said "that part of the book was eliminated after the first printing" (P-53). P-53's footnote points to the first-edition foreword's worry about "the overwhelming number of personal appeals" (P-53), a line today's reprint of that foreword still carries (p. xiii); our sources can't show which passage Bill had in mind. - Appendix II, "Spiritual Experience," says "our first printing gave many readers the impression" (p. 567) that the personality change had to be sudden and spectacular, and corrects it, so it was written after the first printing; the Preface says the appendices entered the book with the second edition (p. xi). Our sources don't say exactly when Appendix II was written.

Second edition, 1955 (p. xi). More than 1,150,500 copies (p. xi). It added "the appendices, the Twelve Traditions, and the directions for getting in touch with A.A." (p. xi), and a new foreword describing the fellowship "as it was in 1955" (p. xv). The story section was rebuilt and divided into three parts, "Pioneers of A.A.," "They Stopped in Time" and "They Lost Nearly All" (pp. xi–xii). Bill's story, Dr. Bob's and one other were kept intact; three were edited (one retitled); two were rewritten under new titles; thirty new stories were added (pp. xi–xii). Pass It On (1984) adds that Bill made a point of including the story of A.A. number three, Bill D., who hadn't written one for 1939 (Pass It On, 1984). Experience, Strength and Hope (2003) quotes Bill's 1954 guidance: the audience "is people who are coming to Alcoholics Anonymous now" (Experience, Strength and Hope, 2003).

Third edition, 1976 (p. xi). About 19,550,000 copies in all formats (p. xi). Part I was left unchanged; Part II kept nine stories and added eight; Part III kept eight and added five (p. xii). A new foreword reported more than a million members in over 90 countries (p. xxii).

Fourth edition, 2001. It added the Twelve Concepts for World Service (p. xii), now Appendix VII (p. 574), and a new foreword (p. xxiii). In the stories, Part I gained one new story and two moved from Part III, and lost six; Part II kept six, added eleven and dropped eleven; Part III added twelve and dropped eight, besides the two moved (p. xii). The book now has forty-two stories (p. xii). Experience, Strength and Hope (2003) says the 1997 General Service Conference asked for the edition, that more than 1,200 manuscripts came in, and that the changes "were the most extensive yet" (Experience, Strength and Hope, 2003). The new stories, the fourth-edition foreword says, represent a membership whose "characteristics—of age, gender, race, and culture—have widened and have deepened" (p. xxiii).

Small changes inside the 1939 chapters

The fourth edition shows its own seams: - Footnotes. Several notes carry later dates: membership figures for 2006 and 2007 (pp. 16, 162) and a 2003 survey of members' ages (p. 34). Others were plainly written later: a note on Al-Anon, formed "about thirteen years after this chapter was written" (p. 121), and one identifying Bill and Dr. Bob, who "later became co-founders of A.A." (p. 155). Chapter 8 now carries a note that it was "Written in 1939, when there were few women in A.A." (p. 104). Our copy is the thirty-second printing, December 2013 (p. iv), and the fourth-edition foreword has a note dated 2013 (p. xxiii), so notes are updated between printings, not only between editions. - The story count. Chapter 2 says the directions "are followed by forty-two personal experiences" (p. 29), the fourth edition's number. Experience, Strength and Hope (2003) says the first edition had 29 stories (Dr. Bob's and 28 others), so that sentence can't have read "forty-two" in 1939. Our sources have no first edition to show what it said.

Where the sources differ

  • "Unchanged" or "largely untouched." Bill (1955, printed 1957) and Pass It On (1984) say the main text was unchanged; the Preface (2001) and Experience, Strength and Hope (2003) say "largely" (p. xi). The examples above favour "largely."
  • Second-edition stories. The Preface counts three first-edition stories kept intact, including "Bill's Story," which is Chapter 1 (p. xi); Experience, Strength and Hope says "Only two stories from the first edition were retained intact" (Experience, Strength and Hope, 2003), perhaps counting only the story section. Its own figures (two intact, three edited, two rewritten, 30 new) add up to 37, as the Preface's do without Bill's story, yet it gives the total as 38 stories (Experience, Strength and Hope, 2003). Pass It On (1984) counts six carried over besides Bill's and Dr. Bob's, and 30 new (Pass It On, 1984).
  • Fourth-edition stories. The Preface's figures add up to 24 new stories (p. xii); Experience, Strength and Hope says 25 new stories and 17 kept from the third edition (Experience, Strength and Hope, 2003). Both arrive at forty-two. Our sources don't explain either difference of one.
  • When the fourth edition appeared. The copyright page says first printing October 2001 (p. iv); the fourth-edition foreword says it "came off press in November 2001" (p. xxiii).

For readers today

Because the program text has hardly changed, a reader of any edition is reading essentially the same 1939 words in Chapters 1 to 11. Whether the page numbers match from edition to edition, our sources can't check; it holds only the fourth edition. The stories are another matter: a story quoted from one edition may not exist in another. That's one reason the stories are read as members' experience rather than program text; see Are the personal stories part of the A.A. program? The stories dropped from the first three editions are collected in Experience, Strength and Hope (2003).

On copyright, the A.A. Service Manual (2024–2026 edition) says the first and second editions are in the public domain in the United States only, while the third and fourth remain under copyright (A.A. Service Manual).

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Pages Date
Alcoholics Anonymous, copyright page and Preface iv, xi–xii fourth edition, 2001 (copy: 32nd printing, 2013)
Alcoholics Anonymous, Forewords to the First, Second, Third and Fourth Editions xiii, xv, xxii, xxiii 1939, 1955, 1976, 2001
Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapters 1, 2, 3, 8, 11; Appendices II, VII 16, 29, 34, 104, 121, 155, 162, 567, 574 1939 text; footnotes and appendices later
A.A. Comes of Age (Bill W., 1955 convention talk) — 1957
P-53, Bill W.'s last major talk — October 1969; pamphlet © 2017
Pass It On — 1984
Experience, Strength and Hope, introductions — 2003
The A.A. Service Manual — 2024–2026 edition

Comes of Age and Pass It On are cited by the file-page markers in our copies (f.), not printed pages.

Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book, P-53, A.A. Comes of Age, Pass It On, Experience, Strength and Hope and The A.A. Service Manual 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.