Talk to Recovery EinsteinYou're not alone — day or night
Home › A.A. questions, from the books › The Traditions

Why is A.A. anonymous?

In short:

  • In 1939 the reason was practical. The first hundred members said they were too few to handle the flood of personal appeals the book might bring, and most of them had jobs to keep (p. xiii).
  • By 1946 Bill W. gave four reasons: anonymity makes it safe for alcoholics and their families to ask for help; it keeps any "founder" or leader from becoming a public face who could get drunk and disgrace A.A.; it wins the trust of reporters; and the public respects a society that seeks no credit.
  • Underneath those, the Long Form names a spiritual reason: anonymity keeps principles ahead of personalities and teaches humility (p. 566). In 1955 Bill called it A.A.'s protection against its own members' hunger for fame, power and money, starting with his own.

Where the name came from

Before the book was published in 1939, the fellowship had no name (P-17, p. 41). The members debated about two hundred titles and narrowed them to "The Way Out" or "Alcoholics Anonymous" (P-17, pp. 41–42). "The Way Out" won a close vote, until a member checked the Library of Congress and found "exactly twelve books already titled" that (P-17, "Anonymity", 1946, p. 42). Nobody wanted to be the thirteenth, so the book, and then the fellowship, became Alcoholics Anonymous (P-17, p. 42).

1939: the first reasons (Foreword to the First Edition)

The foreword gives the reason directly: "It is important that we remain anonymous because we are too few, at present to handle the overwhelming number of personal appeals which may result from this publication" (p. xiii). Most members were business or professional people who couldn't keep up their occupations if that happened, and "our alcoholic work is an avocation" (p. xiii). So the foreword asks members writing or speaking publicly about alcoholism to call themselves "a member of Alcoholics Anonymous" instead of using their names, and asks the press to respect this (p. xiii).

When Bill quoted this foreword in 1946, he gave its wording as some members being unable to carry on their occupations "if known" (P-17, p. 42). The printed foreword ties the point to the flood of appeals. Both are about protecting members while A.A. was small.

1946: Bill W.'s four reasons ("Anonymity")

By 1946 every group was asking how anonymous members should be and what good it did (P-17, p. 42). Bill set out what most older members agreed on (P-17, pp. 44–45):

  1. It makes it safe to ask for help. Alcoholics and their families, still afraid of the stigma, see anonymity as a promise that their problem will be kept confidential (P-17, p. 45).
  2. It protects A.A. from its own leaders. "The policy of anonymity is a protection to our cause" (P-17, "Anonymity", 1946, p. 45). It stops founders or leaders from becoming household names who "might at any time get drunk and give A.A. a black eye" (P-17, "Anonymity", 1946, p. 45).
  3. It makes friends of reporters. A reporter who sees "a group of people who care nothing for personal gain" (P-17, "Anonymity", 1946, p. 45) writes a friendly story.
  4. The public trusts it. People tired of promotion and loud public figures are drawn by A.A.'s quietness and modesty (P-17, p. 45).

Then the spiritual point: "anonymity amounts to the renunciation of personal prestige as an instrument of general policy" (P-17, "Anonymity", 1946, p. 46).

The Long Form (1946)

Tradition Eleven asks for personal anonymity in public relations, with no names or pictures as A.A. members in broadcast, film or print (p. 565). Tradition Twelve gives the reason under all the others: anonymity reminds members to place principles before personalities and "to practice a genuine humility," so that A.A.'s blessings never spoil it (p. 566).

1955: Bill's own story ("Why Alcoholics Anonymous Is Anonymous," dated)

Nine years later Bill explained anonymity by confessing. After a famous ballplayer's recovery made headlines, Bill went on the road giving interviews and pictures, and for two or three years he was "A.A.'s number one anonymity-breaker" (P-17, "Why Alcoholics Anonymous Is Anonymous", 1955, p. 51). Members grumbled that Bill was "hogging the big time" and might get drunk on them (P-17, p. 51). Others followed his example, and broken anonymity began tying A.A. to Prohibition, the liquor trade, advertising, politics and a lawsuit (P-17, pp. 52–55). His conclusion: anonymity before the general public is A.A.'s main protection against its members' old drive for power, prestige and money, and "the greatest symbol of self-sacrifice that we know" (P-17, "Why Alcoholics Anonymous Is Anonymous", 1955, p. 56).

He ends with Dr. Bob, who declined a monument shortly before he died: "why don't you and I get buried like other folks?" (P-17, "Why Alcoholics Anonymous Is Anonymous", 1955, p. 58). The Smiths' gravestone in Akron doesn't mention Alcoholics Anonymous (P-17, p. 58).

The 1955 piece quotes Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (1953) twice (P-17, pp. 48–49). This page doesn't use those lines.

What anonymity doesn't mean

None of these reasons asks members to hide A.A. from the people around them. In 1946 Bill wrote that members had dropped anonymity with friends and associates on purpose, and in 1955 that disclosure to family, friends and neighbors is usually right (P-17, pp. 44, 56). See Tradition Twelve: does anonymity mean keeping A.A. secret?

Read it yourself

Sources

Source Pages First published
Alcoholics Anonymous, Foreword to the First Edition xiii–xiv 1939
Bill W., "Anonymity" (P-17) 41–47 AA Grapevine, 1946
The Twelve Traditions, Long Form, Traditions Eleven and Twelve (Big Book Appendix I) 565–566 AA Grapevine, 1946; in the Big Book from 1955
Bill W., "Why Alcoholics Anonymous Is Anonymous" (P-17) 48–58 1955

Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001). P-17 page numbers are the pamphlet's printed numbers (© 2019), which match aa.org's free PDF.

Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book is © A.A. World Services, Inc.; the P-17 articles are © AA Grapevine, Inc., reprinted by A.A. World Services.

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.