What did the first members read before the Big Book existed?

Dr. Bob's own account (1948)

In his last major talk, recorded in Detroit in December 1948, Dr. Bob described the early days at Akron. Before he met Bill W., he had spent two and a half years with the Oxford Group, had "done an immense amount of reading they had recommended" (P-53), and had refreshed his memory of the Bible. None of it kept him sober; what Bill brought him was the idea of helping someone else (P-53).

Of the time when he and Bill began working with Bill D., A.A. number three, in June 1935, he said: "we had no Twelve Steps, either; we had no Traditions" (P-53). "But we were convinced that the answer to our problems was in the Good Book." (P-53). Then the passage most often repeated: "To some of us older ones, the parts that we found absolutely essential were the Sermon on the Mount, the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians, and the Book of James." (P-53). He is talking about parts of the Bible here, not about a separate book.

Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers (1980) and Pass It On (1984) both quote the same words (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980; Pass It On, 1984). The 1980 book adds: "They had the Bible, and they had the precepts of the Oxford Group." (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).

Mornings at the Smiths' house (1935)

When Bill lived with Dr. Bob and Anne Smith in the summer of 1935, the day began with the Oxford Group practice of a morning quiet time. Bill (1957) remembers Anne sitting by the fireplace to "read from the Bible, and then we would huddle together in stillness, awaiting inspiration and guidance" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). The 1980 book quotes him: "James was our favorite" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980), and Anne would end with the verse "Faith without works is dead" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). The Book of James was liked so well that some wanted to call the fellowship "The James Club" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). See Is "faith without works is dead" in the Big Book?

What Akron members remembered (1980)

Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers gathers the recollections of early Akron members. They are memories recorded decades later, and the book itself notes how often they differ; as one member put it, they had all seen the same events "from different angles" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). - The Bible first. "The Bible was stressed as reading material, of course." (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). Patients in the hospital in the early days were allowed only a Bible to read (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). - The Upper Room. Dr. Bob's daughter, Sue, remembered that the morning Bible reading was later joined by The Upper Room, "a Methodist publication that provided a daily inspirational message" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). Another early member, Dorothy S. M., called it "that little nickel book" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980) and said members were told to read it every morning (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). At the weekly meeting in T. Henry Williams's house, the leader usually took something from it, or from other literature, as a subject (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). - Emmet Fox's The Sermon on the Mount. Dorothy remembered it as "required reading for everybody" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980), handed to men in the hospital as soon as they could focus their eyes. - Henry Drummond's The Greatest Thing in the World. Bob E. of Akron recalled it as another popular book of the time, which, like The Upper Room, was given out to members by a woman remembered as Mother G. (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).

Dorothy summed up: "Those were the three main books at the time" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980), meaning Drummond, The Upper Room and Fox. Dr. Bob himself read widely: his son remembered that he read the Bible through three times and owned books from William James's Varieties to For Sinners Only, a book about the Oxford Group (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980), but Dorothy said "he didn't push books at people" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).

A caution on dates: the 1980 book sets this reading in "1938-39" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980), when the Big Book was being written, and it doesn't say when each of the three books first came into use. So our sources show they were read around the time the Big Book appeared, not that all three were in use from 1935.

Frank Amos, soon to be one of A.A.'s first nonalcoholic trustees, looked into the Akron group for Mr. Rockefeller, and his report of February 1938 lists the practice: daily devotions, "a 'quiet time' of prayer and some reading from the Bible and other religious literature" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).

The same book is plain about what was missing: "there was definitely a need for literature directed specifically to the alcoholic" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). That was the book, begun in 1938.

What the Big Book and its stories say

The 1939 main text names no devotional book. In its section on morning meditation it says members who belong to a religious body follow its practice, others may memorize a few prayers, and "There are many helpful books also." (p. 87). Suggestions are to come from "one's priest, minister, or rabbi" (p. 87).

"He Sold Himself Short," a story in Part I describing Akron in 1937, says that at his first meeting "The big A.A. book had not been written, and there was no literature except various religious pamphlets." (p. 262). "The program was carried on entirely by word of mouth." (p. 262).

A note on "upper room." Chapter 11 describes a newcomer who heard a member's story "in an upper room of this house" (p. 160). That is a room upstairs in the home the chapter describes, not the booklet.

New York

Our sources say much less about New York. Bill's own reading was William James's The Varieties of Religious Experience, which he says a friend, Ebby he thinks, brought him at Towns Hospital in 1934 (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). By 1938 the word-of-mouth program's basic ideas, as he put it, "had come from the Oxford Groups, William James, and Dr. Silk-worth" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). See Why does the Big Book mention William James?

Read it yourself

• Chapter 6, "Into Action" (pp. 72–88), on morning meditation and "helpful books": https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt6.pdf
• Personal Stories Part I, "He Sold Himself Short" (pp. 258–267): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_personalstories_partI.pdf
• P-53, The Co-Founders of Alcoholics Anonymous (Dr. Bob's 1948 talk): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/literature/P-53_0725.pdf
• Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, A.A. Comes of Age and Pass It On are sold by A.A. World Services: https://onlineliterature.aa.org
• Related: What did early A.A. take from the Oxford Group, and why did it separate? · What were the "six steps" used before the Twelve Steps? · What were the "Four Absolutes"? Are they in the Big Book? · Is "faith without works is dead" in the Big Book?

Sources

The history books 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, Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers and Pass It On 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.