Who wrote the Big Book's chapters, including "To Wives"?

What the Big Book itself says

The book signs itself only as Alcoholics Anonymous (p. xiv). The Foreword to the First Edition speaks for "more than one hundred men and women who have recovered" (p. xiii), and the last chapter addresses a reader who may never meet "you who write this book" (p. 164).

Two chapters say who is speaking: - "To Wives." The chapter says the members want "the wives of Alcoholics Anonymous to address the wives of men who drink too much" (p. 104), and it goes on in the wives' voice: "As wives of Alcoholics Anonymous, we would like you to feel that we understand" (p. 104). A footnote added later says it was "Written in 1939, when there were few women in A.A." (p. 104). - "To Employers." The chapter opens by introducing one member who had spent much of his life in big business and had hired and fired hundreds of men, then hands over to him: "But let him tell you:" (p. 136). The rest is in his first person.

"The Doctor's Opinion" is Dr. Silkworth's, kept intact "just as it was originally written in 1939" (p. xi). See What is "The Doctor's Opinion," and who wrote it?

The book doesn't say who drafted the other chapters. For that our sources have only accounts written later.

Bill's own accounts (P-44, around 1955; A.A. Comes of Age, 1957)

P-44. Bill says he dictated the chapters to Ruth Hock, the nonalcoholic secretary, while the New York and Akron groups argued over the drafts "for months on end" (P-44). "I became much more of an umpire than I ever was an author." (P-44). Members in Akron, New York and "a couple in Cleveland" wrote their stories, 28 in all (P-44).

A.A. Comes of Age (1957). Bill says he began the book in March or April 1938, and by the time the 1938 money-raising campaign got under way had finished his own story and roughed out the second chapter (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). He dictated rough drafts in Henry P.'s office in Newark, working from "a hastily drawn-up list of possible chapter headings" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957), read each chapter to the New York group, and sent copies to Dr. Bob in Akron "for checking and criticism" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Before Chapter 5 he had written his own story and "There Is a Solution," "More About Alcoholism" and "We Agnostics" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). When the New York arguments over God and religion threatened to stall the work, "I finally asked that I might be the final judge of what the book said" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

Others shaped the text. A psychiatrist, Dr. Howard, read the prepublication copy and said it was too full of "you" and "must"; Bill argued weakly, then gave in and changed it throughout to a "we ought" basis (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). The compromise wording in the Steps, "God as we understood Him," came out of the New York arguments, and Bill says, "Who first suggested the actual compromise words I do not know" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

The stories. In Akron a former newspaperman, Jim S., interviewed the members with long sobriety and wrote most of their stories; "Dr. Bob wrote his own" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). The New Yorkers wrote their own, and Bill and Henry edited them over the writers' protests (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Looking back, Bill wrote that the book "was everybody's book and that I had been mostly the umpire of the discussions that had created it" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957).

"To Wives" (1980, 1984)

Neither of Bill's own accounts in our sources say who wrote "To Wives." The two later histories do: - Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers (1980) quotes a June 1938 letter in which Bill suggested that Dr. Bob's wife, Anne, write the chapter: "Anne should do the one portraying the wife" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). She didn't; the book guesses her modesty was the reason. Lois, Bill's wife, wasn't asked, and when she suggested it Bill said it "should be in the same style as the book" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). "Bill himself wrote the chapter that came to be called 'To Wives,'" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). Lois is quoted: "I've always been hurt by it" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). - Pass It On (1984) says "there is no doubt about the authorship of 'To Wives.'" (Pass It On, 1984) and quotes Lois: "Bill wrote it, and I was mad." (Pass It On, 1984). She asked whether he wanted her to write it, and he said it should be in the same style as the rest of the book (Pass It On, 1984).

So the chapter is written as the wives speaking, and both later histories say Bill wrote it. Our sources have nothing from 1939 that says either way.

The other chapters (1984)

Pass It On (1984) is the only source in our sources that takes up the question chapter by chapter: "Bill wrote at least ten of the opening chapters of the book; there is some reason to believe that 'To Employers' may have been written by Hank." (Pass It On, 1984). Hank P. was Bill's partner in Works Publishing, the company that published the book (P-44); Bill's 1957 book calls him Henry P. Pass It On doesn't say what the reason is, and none of the other sources mentions it.

The same book says that although Bill was "the nominal author of the fifth chapter, he was in fact serving as spokesman for all the others" (Pass It On, 1984), and that final editing was done by Tom Uzzell of New York University, who cut the manuscript by at least a third (Pass It On, 1984). Ruth Hock is quoted saying the two were about equally responsible: without Bill the book wouldn't have been written, and "it wouldn't have been published without Hank" (Pass It On, 1984). See How was the Big Book paid for and published (Works Publishing)?

Where the sources differ

• When Bill started. Bill (1957) says March or April 1938 (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957); the 1980 book says the book "was begun in May 1938" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).
• How many stories, from where. Bill (around 1955) says 28 in all (P-44). Bill (1957) says the Akronites produced eighteen, two of them from Clevelanders, and New York ten (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957). Pass It On (1984) says 16 from Akron and 12 from New York, besides Bill's and Dr. Bob's (Pass It On, 1984).
• Marie B. The one story by a wife: Bill (1957) calls her "the wife of an Akron alcoholic" (A.A. Comes of Age, 1957); the 1980 book calls her the wife of "a member from Cleveland" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980).
• "To Employers." Only the 1984 book raises Hank P., and only as "some reason to believe" (Pass It On, 1984). Our sources don't settle it.

Read it yourself

• Chapter 8, "To Wives" (pp. 104–121): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt8.pdf
• Chapter 10, "To Employers" (pp. 136–150): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt10.pdf
• Foreword to the First Edition (pp. xiii–xiv): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_forewordfirstedition.pdf
• P-44, A.A.'s Legacy of Service: https://www.aa.org/aas-legacy-service
• Alcoholics Anonymous, A.A. Comes of Age, Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers and Pass It On are sold by A.A. World Services: https://onlineliterature.aa.org
• Related: Was there a draft of the Big Book before 1939? · How were the Twelve Steps written? · How was the Big Book paid for and published (Works Publishing)? · What is "The Doctor's Opinion," and who wrote it?

Sources

Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001). 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, A.A. Comes of Age, Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers and Pass It On 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.