dickb
11-02-2010, 08:30 PM
The Real News About the Newly Published A.A. Manuscript
Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved.
In a blitz of publishing expertise, Hazelden flooded every possible outlet with the news that it had just published "The Book That Started It All" or, as its owner called it, "The Holy Grail."
As might have been expected, the real proof was in the pudding. Publicists talked about everything except the really important items that will keep all of us historians looking for a long time to come.
The owner, who asked my son and me to work with him on the introductory material, recently suggested I write a book about the book. But we have found a number of items that require lots more research and analysis than anyone, including us, has done so far.
Just to whet your appetite, here are some interesting factual challenges:
1. Is the Big Book language about "choosing your own conception of God" a hoax, an outsider insert, an afterthought, or a real part of Bill Wilson's writings and story. I was told, long before the Grail was published, that I should be looking for the hand-written insert that attributed to Ebby Thacher a statement that does not appear in any of the other manuscripts I have seen and/or collected. This particular evidentiary challenge is the one that should receive the most research and attention in the future.
2. The real source of the "power greater than ourselves" change in Step Two, and God "as we understood Him" in Steps Three and Eleven is not really known by those who talk about this great compromise Bill Wilson made to appease the atheists. Yet, in order to understand what Bill Wilson was giving away and yet keeping, one needs to know that both phrases were in common use in the Oxford Group long before the changes were made. In fact, they were, for example, Sam Shoemaker's way of telling people how to "find" Almighty God. This particular evidentiary challenge has already been discussed in part in my New Light on Alcoholism book about Shoemaker, A.A., and Wilson www.dickb.com/newlight.shtml.
3. Probably the greatest puzzle concerns what the manuscript does NOT contain--the 400 pages that were the thrown out by editor Tom Uzzell. Also the battle over "keeping" the "dogma" that the material had picked up from the churches and missions that helped frame ideas. Also, the comment by Bill's secretary Ruth Hock to historian Bill Pittman that, of the 400 pages thrown out, most consisted of Biblical and Christian materials. And this fact, if it is a fact, is now becoming much more credible as we learn about the real origins of A.A. and the Christian upbringing of its founders. See www.dickb.com/conversion.shtml; www.dickb.com/drbobofaa.shtml; and www.dickb.com/Christian-Recover-Guide.shtml.
That's all for now, but there is much much much more! Good hunting.
Dick B., Writer, Historian, Retired attorney, Bible student, active and recovered AA member www.dickb.com
Dick B.
© 2010 Anonymous. All rights reserved.
In a blitz of publishing expertise, Hazelden flooded every possible outlet with the news that it had just published "The Book That Started It All" or, as its owner called it, "The Holy Grail."
As might have been expected, the real proof was in the pudding. Publicists talked about everything except the really important items that will keep all of us historians looking for a long time to come.
The owner, who asked my son and me to work with him on the introductory material, recently suggested I write a book about the book. But we have found a number of items that require lots more research and analysis than anyone, including us, has done so far.
Just to whet your appetite, here are some interesting factual challenges:
1. Is the Big Book language about "choosing your own conception of God" a hoax, an outsider insert, an afterthought, or a real part of Bill Wilson's writings and story. I was told, long before the Grail was published, that I should be looking for the hand-written insert that attributed to Ebby Thacher a statement that does not appear in any of the other manuscripts I have seen and/or collected. This particular evidentiary challenge is the one that should receive the most research and attention in the future.
2. The real source of the "power greater than ourselves" change in Step Two, and God "as we understood Him" in Steps Three and Eleven is not really known by those who talk about this great compromise Bill Wilson made to appease the atheists. Yet, in order to understand what Bill Wilson was giving away and yet keeping, one needs to know that both phrases were in common use in the Oxford Group long before the changes were made. In fact, they were, for example, Sam Shoemaker's way of telling people how to "find" Almighty God. This particular evidentiary challenge has already been discussed in part in my New Light on Alcoholism book about Shoemaker, A.A., and Wilson www.dickb.com/newlight.shtml.
3. Probably the greatest puzzle concerns what the manuscript does NOT contain--the 400 pages that were the thrown out by editor Tom Uzzell. Also the battle over "keeping" the "dogma" that the material had picked up from the churches and missions that helped frame ideas. Also, the comment by Bill's secretary Ruth Hock to historian Bill Pittman that, of the 400 pages thrown out, most consisted of Biblical and Christian materials. And this fact, if it is a fact, is now becoming much more credible as we learn about the real origins of A.A. and the Christian upbringing of its founders. See www.dickb.com/conversion.shtml; www.dickb.com/drbobofaa.shtml; and www.dickb.com/Christian-Recover-Guide.shtml.
That's all for now, but there is much much much more! Good hunting.
Dick B., Writer, Historian, Retired attorney, Bible student, active and recovered AA member www.dickb.com