# Why were the Twelve Traditions written?

**In short:**
- The Traditions were written to keep A.A. alive and in one piece. The Big Book says they answer two questions: "How can A.A. best function?" and "How can A.A. best stay whole and so survive?" (p. 561).
- They came out of real trouble in the 1940s, as A.A. grew from about a hundred members to many thousands: fights over membership, leadership, money, property and publicity.
- Bill W. put the lessons into words and published them in the A.A. Grapevine in 1946. He said he hadn't invented them; the groups had learned them the hard way.
- The reason given is survival, for the members as much as for A.A.: "A.A. must continue to live or most of us will surely die" (p. 563).

## What the Big Book says

Appendix I, "The A.A. Tradition," opens by saying A.A. has made the difference between misery and sobriety, often between life and death, for those in it, and could do the same for alcoholics not yet reached (p. 561). So no society ever had "a more urgent need for continuous effectiveness and permanent unity" (p. 561). Alcoholics have to "work together and hang together" or most will "die alone" (p. 561).

The Long Form itself opens with the words "Our A.A. experience has taught us that:" (p. 563). Each Tradition is stated as something experience taught, not as a plan worked out in advance.

The Foreword to the Second Edition (1955) tells the same story in brief. After the publicity of 1939–1941, A.A. entered an "adolescent period" (p. xviii). Could thousands of alcoholics meet and work together? Would there be quarrels over membership, leadership and money, or splits that broke A.A. apart (pp. xviii–xix)? The answer that grew out of it was that "A.A.'s had to hang together or die separately" (p. xix). Just as the Steps were principles an alcoholic could live by, the groups and A.A. as a whole needed principles to "survive and function effectively" (p. xix).

## What Bill W. said when he wrote them (1946–1947)

Bill's introduction to the original "Twelve Points to Assure Our Future" is printed in the pamphlet P-17. "Almost any A.A. can tell you what our group problems are," he wrote (P-17, Foreword, 1955). They were about the member's relation to his group, the group's relation to A.A. as a whole, and A.A.'s place in the world outside, and above all about leadership, money and authority. He asked whether A.A. had enough experience yet to state principles "which could grow into vital traditions" (P-17, Foreword, 1955), and offered the Twelve Points as his attempt. (The pamphlet dates its whole foreword 1955, though this part introduces the 1946 Points, so we date it 1955.)

His 1946–47 Grapevine essays fill in the troubles behind each point:
- **Membership.** Groups had written so many membership rules that, if all had been enforced at once, almost no alcoholic could have joined (P-17, "Who Is a Member of Alcoholics Anonymous?", 1946).
- **Money and property.** Groups that set up their own drying-out places, or raised money from the public in A.A.'s name, ran into trouble, and disputes over money threatened what A.A. was for (P-17, "Money", 1946; "Hospitals and A.A.", 1947).
- **Outside causes.** Members wanted A.A. to put its name behind education, research and reform (P-17, "Dangers in Linking A.A. to Other Projects", 1947).
- **Authority.** Committees and old-timers, Bill included, tried to run things and failed (P-17, "Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?", 1947).

He also said why groups would keep them without anyone enforcing them: "Groups see they would disintegrate if they didn't" (P-17, "Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?", 1947).

## How they were put on paper (1957 account)

In *A.A. Comes of Age* (1957), Bill gives the history. Letters about group problems poured into the New York office, and "The basic ideas for the Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous came directly out of this vast correspondence" (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957). In late 1945 a friend suggested turning that experience into a set of principles. Bill adds that such a code "could not, of course, ever become rule or law" (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957), but might guide the trustees, the office, and groups with growing pains. The Long Form appeared in "the Grapevine of May, 1946" (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957).

He is clear that he only wrote down what the groups had already learned. The first lessons came as early as 1937, when the New York group talked him out of becoming a paid therapist at Towns Hospital. He says three "embryo principles" rang in his mind from it, the first being "The common welfare must come first" (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957); the others were that A.A. can't have a class of professional therapists and that God, speaking in the group conscience, is the final authority.

## What the texts don't say

None of these sources says the Traditions were written to govern an individual member's private life or recovery. That job belongs to the Steps. The Traditions are about how A.A. groups, and members acting as A.A., relate to each other and to the world (see *Are the Traditions rules? Who do they apply to?*).

## Read it yourself
- Appendix I, "The A.A. Tradition" (pp. 561–566), free from A.A.: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_appendicei.pdf
- Foreword to the Second Edition (pp. xv–xxi): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_forewordsecondedition.pdf
- P-17, *A.A. Tradition — How It Developed* (Bill W.'s 1946–47 essays): https://www.aa.org/aa-tradition-how-it-developed
- *Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age* is sold by A.A. World Services at https://onlineliterature.aa.org
- Related: *Were the Traditions written with the Steps?* · *What is the Long Form?*

## Sources
| Source | Pages | First published |
|---|---|---|
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Appendix I, Long Form of the Traditions | 561, 563 | text 1946; in the Big Book from the 2nd edition (1955) |
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Foreword to the Second Edition | xviii–xix | 1955 |
| P-17, Bill W.'s Grapevine essays ("Who Is a Member…", "Money", "Hospitals and A.A." (excerpts), "Dangers in Linking…", "Will A.A. Ever Have a Personal Government?") | — | 1946–1947 |
| P-17, Foreword (introducing the Twelve Points) | — | dated 1955 in the pamphlet |
| *A.A. Comes of Age*, "Unity" and the history of the 1940s | — | 1957 |

Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001). Our copy of *A.A. Comes of Age* is a scan without the printed page numbers, so it's cited by book and year.

*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.; the P-17 articles are © AA Grapevine, Inc.*