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How did Bill W. and Dr. Bob meet?

In short:

  • In 1935 Bill W., a New York stockbroker sober about six months, was stuck in Akron, Ohio, after a business deal collapsed. Afraid he would drink, he went looking for another alcoholic to help.
  • A call to a clergyman led, through a chain of people, to Dr. Bob, an Akron surgeon who was still drinking. They met on a Sunday afternoon and talked for about six hours.
  • Dr. Bob said what reached him was a man who knew alcoholism from his own experience. Bill said he needed Dr. Bob as much as Dr. Bob needed him.
  • The Big Book's 1939 text tells the story without names. The names (the Mayflower Hotel, Rev. Walter Tunks, Henrietta Seiberling) come from later accounts, in 1948 and 1957.

The 1939 account: Chapter 11, "A Vision for You"

The Big Book's own first telling is in Chapter 11, written in 1939 (p. 161 note). It names nobody. One of the members, it says, made a business trip in 1935 to "a certain western city" that ended in a lawsuit and left him discouraged, nearly broke and alone (pp. 153–154). Physically weak and only a few months sober, "He wanted so much to talk with someone, but whom?" (p. 154).

In a hotel lobby he stood between a bar at one end and a church directory at the other (p. 154). He was tempted to sit in the bar with a ginger ale, and then saw the danger: "Again it was the old, insidious insanity—that first drink." (p. 154). What turned him around was thinking of his family and of "the men who would die because they would not know how to get well" (p. 154). "Selecting a church at random from the directory, he stepped into a booth and lifted the receiver." (p. 155).

The call to the clergyman led him to a local man, once able and respected, now near the bottom (p. 155). A footnote in today's edition says this was Bill's first visit with Dr. Bob (p. 155). The man agreed he could not stop on will power and that he needed a spiritual experience, but at first he would not pay the price of admitting his drinking to the people he depended on for a living (p. 155). He invited Bill to his home, went on one more bender, and then went round to the people he had hurt and told them the truth (pp. 155–156).

Dr. Bob's own account (his story, written 1939)

"Doctor Bob's Nightmare," the first personal story in the book, was written while he was about four years sober (p. 180). A lady telephoned his wife on a Saturday, the day before Mother's Day, asking them to come and meet a friend of hers who might help him; he had come home drunk that day (p. 179). They went the next day, and he made his wife promise they would stay fifteen minutes (p. 179). "We entered her house at exactly five o'clock and it was eleven fifteen when we left." (p. 179).

He stopped drinking for about three weeks, then drank heavily at a medical meeting in Atlantic City; his new friend brought him home, and his last drink was on June 10, 1935 (pp. 179–180).

Why did it work this time, when reading and talking to experts hadn't? Because he "was the first living human with whom I had ever talked, who knew what he was talking about in regard to alcoholism from actual experience" (p. 180). "In other words, he talked my language." (p. 180).

The 1955 account: Foreword to the Second Edition

The 1955 foreword gives the outline, still without names. The broker had been relieved of his drink obsession about six months before, after meeting an alcoholic friend connected to the Oxford Groups (pp. xv–xvi). He had worked with many alcoholics but sobered none (p. xvi). Stranded in Akron after a failed business venture and afraid of drinking, "He suddenly realized that in order to save himself he must carry his message to another alcoholic." (p. xvi). The foreword dates the meeting "in June 1935, during a talk between a New York stockbroker and an Akron physician" (p. xv).

Later accounts with names (1948, 1957)

Dr. Bob, 1948. His last major talk, recorded in Detroit in December 1948 and first printed in the Grapevine in 1973, is reprinted in P-53 (P-53). There he names the Mayflower Hotel, says Bill saw the name of Rev. Walter Tunks on a board in the lobby and called him, and that Tunks gave him a list of nine or ten Oxford Group people (P-53). Near the end of the list Bill came to Henrietta Seiberling, who had him to lunch and then called Dr. Bob's wife, Anne; because Dr. Bob was too drunk that day, they came the next day, Sunday and Mother's Day (P-53). He also names what was new to him: the Oxford Group had told him to read, pray and attend meetings, "But the one thing that they hadn't told me was the one thing that Bill did that Sunday — attempt to be helpful to somebody else." (P-53).

Bill W., 1957. In A.A. Comes of Age Bill says he had gone to Akron in May 1935 in a proxy fight over a small machine-tool company, lost, and was left at the Mayflower with about ten dollars (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Pacing the lobby on Mother's Day eve, he realized for the first time that helping others had kept him sober: "You need another alcoholic just as much as he needs you!" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). He picked a minister from the church directory, got a list of about ten names, and reached Henrietta Seiberling at the gatehouse of the Seiberling estate (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Dr. Bob and Anne came the next afternoon at five, and the two men talked alone until eleven (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Bill says he followed Dr. Silkworth's advice to stop preaching and talk about the medical facts and his own case, and that the talk was mutual: "I knew that I needed this alcoholic as much as he needed me." (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

Where the sources differ

  • The month. The 1955 foreword says June 1935 (p. xv). Dr. Bob's 1939 story puts the meeting on Mother's Day, at least three weeks before his last drink on June 10 (pp. 179–180), and P-53's biographies (pamphlet © 2017) and Comes of Age (1957) say May 1935. Our sources don't explain the difference.
  • The hour they left. Dr. Bob, in 1939 and in 1948, says 11:15 (p. 179; P-53); Bill in 1957 says they talked until eleven (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).
  • Who arranged it. The 1939 texts say only "a clergyman" (p. 155) and "a lady" (p. 179). The names are from 1948 and 1957.

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Pages Date
Alcoholics Anonymous, Chapter 11, "A Vision for You" 153–156 1939
"Doctor Bob's Nightmare," Personal Stories Part I 179–180 written 1939 ("nearly four years" sober, p. 180)
Foreword to the Second Edition xv–xvi 1955
P-53, Dr. Bob's last major talk (Detroit) — talk December 1948; first printed 1973; pamphlet © 2017
P-53, biographical sketches — pamphlet © 2017
A.A. Comes of Age — 1957

Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001). The footnote on p. 155 identifying Dr. Bob was added in a later edition; our copy doesn't say when.

Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book, P-53 and A.A. Comes of Age are © A.A. World Services, Inc.; Dr. Bob's 1948 talk in P-53 is © 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.