Not-God (77 page)

124
  
Final Report of the 1982 General Service Conference
, p. 21.

125
  
Final Report of the 1986 General Service Conference
, p. 19; Advisory Action #8 of the 1987 General Service Conference, p. 2 of the mimeographed summary; “About A.A.,” Spring/Summer 1987.
Box 4-5-9
17:5 (October/November 1972), 2, reported the “new A.A. bulletin for professionals” — “About A.A.,” noting that it had been “recently mailed to about 1,000 professional and semi-professional men and women who work in the field of alcoholism outside A.A.”

126
  On the phenomenon,
cf.
Daniel Anderson,
Perspectives on Treatment: The Minnesota Experience
(Center City, MN: Hazelden, 1981), which recounts the history, and James E. Royce,
Alcohol Problems and Alcoholism
(New York: Free Press, 1981), especially Chapter 21, “The New Profession,” which offers perceptive analysis;
Final Report of the 1970 General Service Conference
, pp. 18-19;
Final Report of the 1975 General Service Conference
, pp. 19, 41.

127
  
Final Report of the 1976 General Service Conference
, p. 42.

128
  “A Summary of the Advisory Actions of the General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous, 1951-1986” (New York: A.A.W.S., 1987), p. 26 (1965).

129
  “A Summary of the Advisory Actions of the General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous, 1951-1986” (New York: A.A.W.S., 1987), p. 26 (1967).

130
  “A Summary: Ask-It Basket, General Service Conference: 1951-1978” (New York: A.A.W.S., 1979), p. 26 (1967).

131
  Although direct, this necessarily anonymous quotation well summarizes responses to questions informally asked of long-time, knowledgeable members in the course of research for this final, updating chapter. It also adequately represents responses I have been able to sample on the question of A.A.’s 1986 appeal for “increased self-support.”

132
  
AA
, p. 62.

133
  “The spirituality of not having all the answers”: I am grateful for this phrase to Bob D. of Rochester, New York, who thus encapsulated much of the history outlined in what has preceded.

134
  Paula C., “Our Magazine Both Records and Makes A.A. History,”
Final Report of the 1975 General Service Conference
, p. 14.

135
  
Cf
. “Bibliography,” pp. 411ff, below; also the
A.A. Exchange Bulletin
8:1 (January 1963), which introduces Nell E. Wing as “Bill’s secretarial assistant and our archivist at GSO.”
Box 4-5-9
18:4 (August/September 1973), 1, announces “Archival Library to be a Reality.”

136
  
Final Report of the 1974 General Service Conference
, p. 24.
Box 4-5-9
15:2 (April/May 1970), reported on “New Home for Your GSO.” “A building between 31st and 32nd Street on the west side of Park Avenue South, is the new home for GSO and the
Grapevine
as of April 1, 1970.” The story details the history of the move. “This will be GSO’s fifth home: the first, in 1940, was at 30 Vesey Street. In 1944 we moved to 415 Lexington Avenue. In 1950, 141 East 44th Street became our third home, and in 1960 we moved to the eighteenth floor of 305 East 45th Street.”

137
  
Cf. Final Report of the 1986 General Service Conference
, p. 14, for more details on local archives; also
Box 4-5-9
33:3 (June/July 1987), 4. Some detail on this topic also from interview of Frank M., current A.A. archivist, 20 and 21 April 1987.

Cf
. also
Markings
1:2 (February/March 1982). In answer to the question concerning the film
Markings on the Journey
, “Has this film increased your interest in developing an Archives for your area?: 70% said yes.”

138
  The cooperation was mainly informal, achieved mainly by Nell Wing’s continuing visits to and conversations with Lois Wilson during the period of the book’s being written.

139
  Milton Maxwell,
The A.A. Experience: A Close-Up View for Professionals
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1984);

Mary Catherine Taylor, “Alcoholics Anonymous: How It Works — Recovery Processes in a Self-Help Group,” unpublished dissertation, Univ. of California at San Francisco, 1977; Univ. Microfilms #79-13241;

R. F. Bales, “The Therapeutic Role of Alcoholics Anonymous as seen by a Sociologist,”
QJSA
5:267 (1944);

Selden D. Bacon, “A Sociologist Looks at Alcoholics Anonymous,”
Minnesota Welfare
10:35 (1957);

Mark Keller, “The Oddities of Alcoholics,”
QJSA
33:1147 (1972);

William Madsen,
The American Alcoholic
(Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, 1974);

Leonard U. Blumberg, “The Ideology of a Therapeutic Social Movement: Alcoholics Anonymous,”
JSA
38:2122-2143 (1977);

Barry Leach and John L. Norris, “Factors in the Development of Alcoholics Anonymous,” in Benjamin Kissin and Henri Begleiter, eds.,
Treatment and Rehabilitation of the Chronic Alcoholic
(New York: Plenum, 1977), pp. 441-543;

David Robinson,
Talking Out of Alcoholism
(London: Croom Helm, 1979);

David R. Rudy,
Becoming Alcoholic
(Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois Univ., 1986);

Norman K. Denzin,
The Alcoholic Self
and
The Recovering Alcoholic
(Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1987);

Margaret H. Bean, Edward J. Khantzian, John E. Mack, George E. Vaillant, Norman E. Zinberg,
Dynamic Approaches to the Understanding and Treatment of Alcoholism
(New York, 1981);

George E. Vaillant,
The Natural History of Alcoholism
(Cambridge, 1983);

William Pittman,
Alternative Explanations for the Beginnings of Alcoholics Anonymous: 1934-1939
, unpublished
summa cum laude
thesis, submitted in the Inter-College, University of Minnesota, February 1983.

140
  The question of whether or not A.A. groups and local Central Service offices ought or ought not to sell non-Conference-approved literature is a perennial one within the fellowship and at General Service Conference meetings. A recent set of pro and con statements may be found in the notes provided at First A.A.W.S./Intergroup Seminar, 5 September 1986, Chicago, Illinois.

141
  An especially interesting source of information is the budget that appears in each year’s
Final Report of the General Service Conference
, which estimates anticipated sales of each title for the current year.

142
  Advisory Action #36, p. 5, on the mimeographed summary.

143
  
Cf. Final Report of the 1986 General Service Conference
, p. 45. The “wariness of interpretation” applies also to the reflections book project. For background on this wariness, which, for example, many compilers of various concordances of A.A. literature over the years have experienced,
cf. Box 4-5-9
22:4 (August/ September 1977). Headline: “Big Book Study Guides? A.A.W.S. Arrives at a Position.”

“One trustee-director wrote: ‘The individual A.A. member does not need another person or institution to think for him or her — in fact, this could be a very bad thing. Part of the beauty and magic of A.A. is that persons from all walks of life, with varied backgrounds, may benefit from the Big Book, the Steps, the Traditions, and the Concepts, from their own points of view. Placing guidelines on paper seems to say, “This is the way — the only way.”

“ ‘The authors of this priceless material knew what they were doing. Their words require study, not interpretation.’

“Another trustee-director enlarged on this line of thinking as follows: ‘As it is now, to the extent A.A. takes positions, it is in our literature, etc. — and if it isn’t there, A.A. does not have a position. This is clear and simple, and we should keep it this way.’ ”

144
  
Final Report of the 1986 General Service Conference
, p. 45.

145
  
Cf
. Carol P. Christ,
Diving Deep and Surfacing
(Boston, 1980); Alasdair MacIntyre,
After Virtue
(Notre Dame, 1981); Andre Lacocque and P. E. Lacocque,
The Jonah Complex
(Atlanta, 1981); David Tracy,
The Analogical Imagination
(New York: Crossroad, 1981) and
Pluralism and Ambiguity
(San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1987); Michael Goldberg,
Theology and Narrative
(Nashville, 1982); Donald P. Spence,
Narrative Truth and Historical Truth
(New York, 1982); Richard J. Bernstein,
Beyond Objectivism and Relativism
(Philadelphia, 1983); Terry Eagleton,
Literary Theory: An Introduction
(Minneapolis, 1983); Paul Ricoeur,
Time and Narrative
, vol. 1 (Chicago, 1984), and vol. 2 (Chicago, 1986); Arthur C. Danto,
Narration and Knowledge
(New York: Columbia Univ., 1985); Paul Veyne,
Writing History
(Middletown, CT, 1985).

146
  
Cf.
, e.g.,
The Gazette
(Montreal), 3 July 1985, p. A-4; for another perspective on the crowding,
cf
. Bill Pittman, “Sobriety Celebrations,”
Alcoholism/The National Magazine
5:5 (May/June 1985), 21-28.

147
  Of the over 44,000 attending, somewhat under 35,000 were A.A. members, somewhat over 10,000 members of Al-Anon and Alateen.
“Fifty Years With Gratitude,”
p. 18; some details from “Celebration!”
AAGV
42:5 (October 1985), 2-17; interview with Laurie Lukens, daughter of Ruth Hock Crecelius, 5 September 1986.

148
  Reported variously, but for the
ambience, cf
. especially “Celebration!” p. 15.

149
  
Cf
. story in
The Gazette
(Montreal), 3 July 1985.

150
  
Final Report of the Ninth World Service Meeting
, p. 42;
cf
. also
Box 4-5-9
32:2 (April/May 1987), 1.

151
  Dan Anderson, “Anderson’s Travels: The Soviet Union,”
Haxelden News
, December 1986, 1, 6. Some details that follow are also from interviews with Dr. Anderson, 21 March, 16 May, and 15 August 1987.

152
  “Mid-Southern California Newsletter” 3:12 (December 1986); “Central News,” Tulare County, Farmersville, CA, 3:2 (February 1987).

Cf
. also form letter, “Dearest Friend” from Igor S., Old Lyme, CT, 3 June 1986, inviting participation in the October 1986 and January 1987 visits.

153
  Interviews with Dr. Dan Anderson, as previously cited, and with others involved who spoke with me only on condition that not even initials be used.

154
  Lois was informed of the difficulty on 26 June 1985; an agreement was signed on 26 August 1985. Much of the detail here and in what follows derives from participation and uncitable internal documents. Those documents will be available to scholars at some future date. Of available sources,
cf
, e.g., First A.A.W.S./Intergroup Seminar, September 5-7, 1986, Chicago, Illinois, p. 47.

155
  Tom J., “Update on A.A.’s Copyrights,”
Final Report of the 1986 General Service Conference
, p. 8.

156
  
Ibid
.

157
  The price of literature to A.A. groups and the structure of discounts for such purchases were again under consideration for review at the time of this writing: interview with John B., 22 April 1987. A part of the longer history of this perennial concern may be traced in
Box 4-5-9
21:5 (October/November 1976).

158
  Based on conversations that included comments on the 25 July and 19 September 1985 meetings of the A.A.W.S. Board of Directors.

159
  Joan Jackson, Ph.D., “Trustees’ Literature Committee’s Survey on Big Book Derivatives,”
Final Report of the 1986 General Service Conference
, pp. 8-9.

160
  
Final Report of the 1986 General Service Conference
, pp. 45-46.

161
  Undated letter, “Dear Friend;” return address, a post office box in Pompano Beach, Florida. Internal evidence dates the composition of the letter in late 1984. What follows relies on the promotional material that accompanied this letter and on the story and advertisements in the “Salute to Ohio” issue (November/December 1985) of
Alcoholism and Addiction Magazine
as well as on participating in conversations on this topic at and after various A.A. meetings around the country;
cf
. also, “Extensions: A Newsletter for the Founders’ Foundation,” obtainable from P.O. Box 449, Akron, OH 44309.

162
  On the history of the discussion surrounding the word “suggested,”
cf. Box 4-5-9
21:1 (February/March 1976), 4-5; also, on “A.A. of Akron,”
cf
. above, pp. 234-236.

163
  Nell Wing, interview of 21 April 1987, reported “one — no, I think two” earlier “feelers” on the Nobel Prize.

164
  
Cf
. above, pp. 266-267.

165
  Wilson to J.L.K., 1943.

166
  
Qf
. above, p. 249.

167
  Partially based on interview with John B., 22 April 1987, and conversations with other G.S.O. staff on that and the adjoining dates.

168
  From the lecture presentation by the author, “Historical Sidelights on Alcoholics Anonymous.”