Page 2 - The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

Preface

THIS IS the fourth edition of the book “Alcoholics Anonymous.”
The first edition appeared in April 1939, and in the following
sixteen years, more than 300,000 copies went into circulation.
The second edition, published in 1955, reached a total of more
than 1,150,500 copies. The third edition, which came off press in
1976, achieved a circulation of approximately 19,550,000 in all
formats.

Because this book has become the basic text for our Society and
has helped such large numbers of alcoholic men and women to
recovery, there exists strong sentiment against any radical
changes being made in it. Therefore, the first portion of this
volume, describing the A.A. recovery program, has been left
largely untouched in the course of revisions made for the second,
third, and fourth editions. The section called “The Doctor’s
Opinion” has been kept intact, just as it was originally written in
1939 by the late Dr. William D. Silkworth, our Society’s great
medical benefactor.

The second edition added the appendices, the Twelve Traditions,
and the directions for getting in touch with A.A. But the chief
change was in the section of personal stories, which was
expanded to reflect the Fellowship’s growth. “Bill’s Story,”
“Doctor Bob’s Nightmare,” and one other personal history from
the first edition were retained intact; three were edited and one
of these was retitled; new versions of two stories were written,
with new titles; thirty completely new stories were added; and
the story section was divided into three parts, under the same
headings that are used now.

In the third edition, Part I (“Pioneers of A.A.”) was left
unchanged. Nine of the stories in Part II (“They Stopped in
Time”) were carried over from the second edition; eight new