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What is the A.A. Grapevine, and how did it start?

In short:

  • The Grapevine is A.A.'s monthly magazine. Today's Big Book calls it "our monthly magazine, the A.A. Grapevine" (Appendix VI, p. 573), and the Long Form of the Traditions (1946) calls it A.A.'s "principal newspaper," whose integrity the trustees guarantee (p. 565).
  • It began in New York in 1944, started by a handful of members (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957); Pass It On (1984) dates the first issue to June 1944 and says it began independently of Bill W. (Pass It On, 1984). Bill says in 1957 that it was "by no means the first local A.A. bulletin" but that it "caught on nationally" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).
  • When the volunteers couldn't keep up with the mailing, the groups were asked whether they wanted it as their magazine. They said yes, it was incorporated, and Foundation trustees joined its board (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).
  • Bill first published the Traditions in it in 1946, followed by pieces explaining them (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). P-17 reprints his 1946–47 essays; all its articles are © AA Grapevine, Inc., and its headings name the Grapevine as the source of two of them (P-17). Today AA Grapevine, Inc. also publishes the Spanish-language La Viña, started in 1996 (A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026 edition).

Where the Big Book mentions it

The Grapevine doesn't appear in the 1939 text (pp. 1–164), which came out five years before the magazine did. It appears in three later places:

  • The Long Form, Tradition Nine (1946). The trustees are the custodians of the Tradition and the receivers of contributions, and "they guarantee the integrity of our principal newspaper, the A.A. Grapevine." (p. 565).
  • Appendix VI, "How to Get in Touch With A.A." The General Service Board administers the General Service Office, A.A. World Services, Inc., "and our monthly magazine, the A.A. Grapevine." (Appendix VI, p. 573).
  • The copyright page. Five personal stories in the fourth edition (on pages 407, 476, 494, 531 and 553) are © The A.A. Grapevine, Inc. and reprinted with permission (p. iv). In other words, some of today's stories first ran in the magazine.

How it started: Bill W.'s account (1957)

In A.A. Comes of Age, Bill writes that "The year 1944 brought a vital development." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). A few "literary and newsminded" members in New York City began a monthly publication; he names Marty, Priscilla, Lois K., Abbott, Maeve and Kay, with Grace O. and her husband among its moving spirits (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). The Cleveland Central Bulletin, the Los Angeles Eye-Opener and others had come first, "But the Grapevine caught on nationally." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

A few months in, the FBI turned out to have a long-running staff sheet of its own called the Grapevine. The problem was solved by calling the magazine the A.A. Grapevine (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Bill puts its circulation at more than 40,000 copies a month as of 1957 (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957) and calls it "the mirror of A.A. thought and action, worldwide." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

Then the work outgrew the volunteers. Licking postage stamps and mailing thousands of copies "finally became an impossible job" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957), so they asked the Foundation to take it over. The trustees asked the groups if they wanted the Grapevine as their international magazine, the answer was yes, and "The journal was incorporated, and two Foundation Trustees were seated on its Board of Directors, along with the editors." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

Bill is open about the money. Full-time help created a growing deficit, and income from the Big Book covered it; without that aid, he says, the magazine would have stopped (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). At one low point the Grapevine's deficits were almost half of what the office itself was short each month (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Most of the editorial work was unpaid. He calls it "one of the most consistent and brilliant volunteer efforts that A.A. has seen" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

The Grapevine and the Traditions (1946–47)

The Traditions were first published in the Grapevine (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). In his 1955 foreword to P-17, Bill writes that he was asked to publish the "Points," with supporting articles, "serially in our principal monthly journal, The AA Grapevine." (P-17, Foreword, 1955). P-17 reprints Bill's essays of 1946 and 1947 ("Who Is a Member of Alcoholics Anonymous?," "Money," "Anonymity," "Hospitals and A.A." and others). Its headings name the Grapevine as the source for two of them: "Who Is a Member" (1946) and the 1947 "Adequate Hospitalization" article excerpted as "Hospitals and A.A." (P-17). The pamphlet doesn't say where each of the others first appeared, though it says all its articles are © AA Grapevine, Inc., and Bill's foreword says the "Points" and supporting articles were to run serially in the Grapevine.

In one of them Bill describes how the magazine's editors see their job: they "believe themselves simply a mirror of current A.A., life and thought." (P-17, "Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?," 1947). And: "Serving purely as such, they cannot rule or propagandize." (P-17, "Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?," 1947). That is the same picture as Long Form Nine, where the trustees guarantee the magazine's integrity as custodians and don't govern (p. 565).

In 1969 Bill recalled that the fellowship needed a publication to relay the groups' experience; at first it was mimeographed, and "Then it was published in the Grapevine, which was started in 1944." (P-53). He adds that the Traditions "were then in the long form" (P-53).

What the later histories add (1984; 2024–2026)

Pass It On (1984) dates the first issue to June 1944 and says the magazine began "independently of Bill," founded by a group he called "six ink-stained wretches" (Pass It On, 1984). It started as an eight-page bulletin meant to get A.A. news to members in the armed forces, and soon became the fellowship's official magazine (Pass It On, 1984). Over the years it would publish "about 100 pieces by Bill" (Pass It On, 1984).

The A.A. Service Manual (2024–2026 edition) gives today's version:

  • It was founded by six volunteers in June 1944. The first issue went to A.A.s serving in the Second World War, who called it their "meeting in print" (A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026 edition), and to every known group (A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026 edition).
  • It was adopted as A.A.'s national magazine in 1945. By January 1949 its masthead called it "the international journal of Alcoholics Anonymous," and the General Service Conference confirmed that in 1986 (A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026 edition).
  • In the first issue, Bill wrote: "May its rays of hope and experience ever fall upon the current of our A.A. life and one day illumine every dark corner of this alcoholic world." (A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026 edition). (The manual quotes this. Our sources don't hold the 1944 issue.)
  • Between 1944 and 1971, Bill published "approximately 150 articles and editorials" in it (A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026 edition).
  • The A.A. Preamble was first published in the June 1947 issue, written by a Grapevine editor (A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026 edition). See: Is the A.A. Preamble in the Big Book? Where did it come from?
  • Today AA Grapevine, Inc. is "one of two operating entities of the General Service Board" (A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026 edition). It has its own board and publishes Grapevine and La Viña, the bimonthly Spanish-language magazine first published in June 1996, along with books and digital editions (A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026 edition). The Conference doesn't review magazine material before publication. The Conference Charter keeps the editor's "right to accept or reject material for publication" (A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026 edition). Because single issues can't go through Conference approval, a 1986 Advisory Action recognizes the Grapevine as the international journal instead (A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026 edition).

Where the sources differ

  • The first Traditions issue. A.A. Comes of Age (1957) says the Long Form first appeared "in the Grapevine of May, 1946" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). P-44 (around 1955) says "the Grapevine of April 1946" (P-44), and Pass It On (1984) also says April 1946 (Pass It On, 1984). The same essay of Bill's as printed in today's Service Manual says May 1946 (A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026 edition). The Big Book itself says only "first printed in 1946" (p. 561). Our sources don't hold the issue to settle it.
  • How many pieces by Bill. Pass It On (1984) says about 100 (Pass It On, 1984); the Service Manual says approximately 150 articles and editorials, 1944–1971 (A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026 edition). Our sources don't say why the counts differ.
  • Who it was first for. Pass It On says it was meant for members in the armed forces (Pass It On, 1984); the Service Manual's appendix says it began "as a newsletter for A.A.s in the New York City area" (A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026 edition). The Service Manual also says the first issue went to members in the armed forces and to every known group (A.A. Service Manual, 2024–2026 edition); Pass It On mentions only the armed forces.

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Pages Date
Alcoholics Anonymous, Appendix I, Long Form Nine 561, 565 1946
Alcoholics Anonymous, Appendix VI 573 added 1955 (second edition, p. xi); this wording current
Alcoholics Anonymous, copyright page iv fourth edition (2001)
P-17, "Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?" (Bill W.) — 1947
P-17, Foreword (Bill W.) — 1955
P-44, A.A.'s Legacy of Service (Bill W.) — around 1955
A.A. Comes of Age (Bill W.) — 1957
P-53, Bill W.'s last major talk — 1969
Pass It On — 1984
The A.A. Service Manual, Chapter 11, Appendix T and Bill W.'s "A.A.'s Legacy of Service" — 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-44, P-53, the Service Manual, A.A. Comes of Age and Pass It On are © A.A. World Services, Inc. P-17's articles are © AA Grapevine, 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.