Page 5 - The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

FOREWORD TO SECOND EDITION

Figures given in this foreword describe the
Fellowship as it was in 1955.

SINCE the original Foreword to this book was written in
1939, a wholesale miracle has taken place. Our earliest
printing voiced the hope “that every alcoholic who journeys
will find the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous at his
destination. Already,” continues the early text “twos and
threes and fives of us have sprung up in other
communities.”

Sixteen years have elapsed between our first printing of this
book and the presentation in 1955 of our second edition. In
that brief space, Alcoholics Anonymous has mushroomed
into nearly 6,000 groups whose membership is far above
150,000 recovered alcoholics. Groups are to be found in
each of the United States and all of the provinces of
Canada. A.A. has flourishing communities in the British
Isles, the Scandinavian countries, South Africa, South
America, Mexico, Alaska, Australia and Hawaii. All told,
promising beginnings have been made in some 50 foreign
countries and U. S. possessions. Some are just now taking
shape in Asia. Many of our friends encourage us by saying
that this is but a beginning, only the augury of a much
larger future ahead.

The spark that was to flare into the first A.A. group was
struck at Akron, Ohio, in June 1935, during a talk between
a New York stockbroker and an Akron physician. Six
months earlier, the broker had been relieved of his drink