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Jim
Burwell was among the first members of A.A. to get sober in New York.
His
sobriety date is 6/16/38 and his story can be found in the Big Book on
page
238 called The Vicious Cycle. Please keep in mind when reading
this that
his recollection of some of the specific facts around the first meeting
of
Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith are inconsistent with more reliable
versions of
the same story.
MEMOIRS
OF JIMMY
THE EVOLUTION OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
By Jim Burwell
Though these are
poor these are a couple
of actual images of Jim B's Book
click on the small image to view the larger image
The
spark of Alcoholics Anonymous was ignited about the middle of November
1934 in a kitchen on a second floor at 182 Clinton Street, Brooklyn.
This was
Bill Wilsons home. The occasion was the visit of a schoolboy
friend of his
from Vermont, Ebby Thacher. Bill was in the middle of a binge,
which had
started on Armistice Day. His friend Ebby had heard of Bills
trouble with
alcohol. Ebby was sober and Bill said later that this was the
first time he
had seen him in that condition for many years, for he always thought
that
Ebby was a hopeless drunk. He greeted Bill on this visit with the
words,
I've got religion, Bill says at the time he thought poor Ebby
had probably
gotten sober only to become balmy on religion. While still
drinking, he
listened to
Ebby's
story about being converted some six months previously
by
the New York Oxford Group. He told Bill about the main idea of
this group
being one person helping another, and their other formulas. Bill
said he
listened to all this talk while he was in the process of keeping the
jitters
down by continuously drinking and probably smiling cynically to himself.
When Ebby left a few hours later he practically dismissed the incident,
but
he later found that this was not the case. Within five days he
found himself
wheeled into his refuge, Townes Hospital on Central Park West in New
York,
for the third time that year. On his arrival at the hospital with
his wife
Lois, he was greeted and put to bed immediately by his old friend, Dr.
Silkworth, the Director. (Editors Note: Incidentally, this is a
great
friend of the Group, who later wrote the Doctors Opinion in
the AA book.)
Bill
said that after he had been in bed a short while he heard the doctor
talking to Lois by the door, saying that if her husband came out of this
episode and did drink again, he did not honestly believe he would live
six
months. [This was during an earlier hospitalization. ] Bill
states that
when he heard these words he was immediately carried back to his talk
with
his friend and could not dismiss the idea that although Ebby might be
batty
with religion, he was sober and he was happy. He kept turning this
over in
his mind, in a mild delirium, and came to a vague conclusion that maybe
Ebby
did have something in a mans helping others in order to get away from
his
own obsessions and problems. A few hours later when the doctor
came in, he
felt a tremendous elation and said, Doc, I've got it. At
the same time he
felt that he was on a high mountain and that a very swift wind was
blowing
through him, and despite the several weeks of drinking, he found he was
completely relaxed and quiet. He asked Dr. Silkworth, Am I
going crazy with
this sudden elation I have? The doctors answer was,
seriously, I don't
know Bill, but I think you had better hold on to whatever you have.
While
he was in the hospital Ebby and the other Oxford Group people visited
Bill and told him of their activities, particularly in the Calvary
Mission.
On Bills release, while still shaky, he visited Dr. Shoemaker at Calvary
Mission and made a decision to become very active in the Missions work
and
to try and bring other alcoholics from Townes to the Group.
This
resolution he put into effect, visiting the Mission and Townes almost
daily for four or five months, and bringing some of the drunks to his
home
for rehabilitation. During this time he was also trying to make
another
comeback in his Wall Street activities, for Bill, like many others, had
built
up tremendous paper profits in the roaring twenties, only to go broke in
the
29 crash. However, he did make a temporary comeback in the
depression years
of 32 and 33 as a syndicate man, only to have John Barleycorn wipe him
out
more completely than ever in his worst drinking year of 1934. Through
hard
work and a little good luck, by May 1st, 1935, he managed to become a
leader
of a minority group of a small corporation, and obtained quite a few
proxies
from others. This group sent him out to Akron, Ohio, hoping to get
control
of the corporation. Bill said later that if this had happened, he
would
probably have been financially independent for life, but when he
attended the
stockholders meeting he found himself snowed under by the other faction.
So
around the middle of May, there he was in the Portage Hotel in Akron
[Mayflower Hotel; Portage was the name of the country club at which
Henrietta
Sieberling put Bill up for a few days, after which he moved into Dr.
Bob's
home. } without even return fare home and completely at the end
of his
rope. Bills story goes that he found himself pacing the lobby,
backwards
and forwards, trying to decide whether to forget it all in the hotel
bar,
when he noticed the Directory of Churches at the other end of the room.
The
thought struck him that if he could talk to another alcoholic he might
regain
his composure, for that had been effective back in New York. Although
he had
worked consistently with drunks for over six months he had not been able
to
save anyone, with the possible exception of himself. He telephoned
several
of the churches listed, and was finally directed to one of the Oxford
Groups
leaders in town, Henrietta Seiberling. Bill tells of calling
Henrietta and
being so shaky that he could hardly get the coin in the slot. The
first
thing he asked her was, Where can I find another alcoholic to talk
to?
Henrietta's answer was, You stay right where you are until I get
there, for
I think I can take you to the very man you are looking for. This
she did,
and the man she took Bill to see was Dr. Bob Smith, who later became the
co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. When Henrietta and Bill got to
Dr. Bobs
they found his wife, Annie, alone. She was in a mental uproar
herself
because her husband had been on the loose for several days. After
Bill and
Henrietta had waited and chatted on the Oxford Group policies, in popped
the
good doctor himself, quite potted and with a potted lily in his arms for
his
wife's Mothers Day gift. When Bob had been bedded Annie insisted
that Bill
stay and try to straighten her husband out. Bill did this and his
stay
lengthened into months. During the next few days Bill and Bob
talked for
hours and decided to pool their resources to help other drunks. When
Bob had
been dry only a few weeks, a new hurdle arose, for Bob found it was
imperative for him to go to a medical convention in Atlantic City.
Bob did
make the convention, but suddenly found himself drunk on the train going
back
to Akron. However, this turned out to be his last spree, for he
dates his
last drink June 15, 1935. [Note that Jim's memory of the date
differs from
official version of June 10.nmo]
This
apparent calamity was probably one of the greatest blessings in disguise
for us later members, for it did cement Bob in this new fellowship they
were
launching. Bill stayed on with the Smiths until the 1st of October
and
during that time Bob and he managed to secure two more converts to the
fold.
Bill then returned to New York where he continued his previous
activities,
with daily visits to Townes and Calvary Mission. During the latter
part of
October, Bill got his first real New York convert, Hank Parkhurst.
Hank
later became one of the genuine inspirations of Alcoholics Anonymous,
for he
was a red-haired, high-pressure human dynamo. Before his last trip
to
Townes, where Bill found him, Hank had been sales manager for Standard
Oil
of New Jersey. From the time of their meeting and during the
latter part of
1935 it was Hank and Bill who did all the ground work, but even then
they had
but indifferent success until their next real convert, Paul Rudell came
in
about April 1936.
The
next man to be pulled out of the mire, through Townes, was dear old Fitz
Mayo who joined the others about November 1936. From this time on
the duet
became a trio, Bill, Hank and Fitz and they were the spearheads in
drunk-saving for the Oxford Group in the New York area. However,
they
discovered in September 1937, that despite all the wet-nursing, praying
and
rehabilitation work done at Bills house on Clinton Street, of
approximately
thirty-five or forty drunks, they were the only three men to come clear
in
almost two years. During this period many things happened, some
quite
tragic, with even an alcoholic suicide in Bills home.
In
September 1937 the three concluded that perhaps their technique would be
better if they would do their work with drunks outside of an affiliation
with
a religious organization. Having arrived at this decision, the
trio formally
resigned from the Oxford Group and concentrated all their efforts on
working
with alcoholics in Townes Hospital, using Bills home as a de-fogging
station. About this time the first completely alcoholic meetings
were held
in Bills home on Tuesday evenings and average attendance ran about
fifteen,
including the drunks families. Even though the trio had separated
from the
Oxford Group, they still retained a lot of their principles and utilized
them
in the discussions at these weekly meetings, but at the same time more
emphasis was placed on the disease of alcoholism as a psychological
sickness.
At the same time they stressed spiritual regeneration and the
understanding
of one alcoholic for another.
A
few months after the break with the Oxford Group, January 1938, I was
brought into the New York fellowship from Washington by Fitz Mayo, whom
I had
known since boyhood. I was enticed to New York by the existence of
this new
group and a small job that Hank Parkhurst gave me in a little business
he and
Bill had gone into on the side. [Honor Dealers] When I
arrived in New
York I found myself thrust into this new group of three or four actively
dry
alcoholics, who at that time had no group name, or real creed or
formula.
Within
the next two or three months, things really started popping. Hank,
with his promotional ideas, started to push Bill into writing a formula,
the
trio finally decided a book should be written on our activities and this
was
in June 1938. Bill was naturally given the job of writing the book
for he
was the only one who had made any real conclusive study of our problem.
From
what I can remember, Bills only special preparation for this was
confined to
the reading of four very well known books, the influence of which can
clearly
be seen in the AA Book. Bill probably got most of his ideas from
one of
these books, namely James Varieties of Religious Experience.
I have
always felt this was because Bill himself had undergone such a violent
spiritual experience. He also gained a fine basic insight of
spirituality
through Emmet Foxs Sermon on the Mount, and a good portion of
the
psychological approach of AA from Dick Peabodys Common Sense of
Drinking.
It is my opinion that a great deal of Bills traditions came from the
fourth
book. Lewis Browne's This Believing World. From
this book, I believe Bill
attained a remarkable perception of possible future pitfalls for groups
of
our kind for it clearly shows that the major failures of religions and
cults
in the past have been due to one of three things: Too much organization,
too
much politics, and too much money or power.
Bill
started his actual writing of our book in the later part of June 1938 in
Hank Parkhurst's office in Newark, with Hanks secretary, Ruth Hock,
taking
dictation. About a month later Bill had completed two chapters.
Each had
been brought up at the Clinton Street Tuesday night meetings. Bill
would
read what had been written to the group as a whole and then pull apart
and
suggestions added by all those present. When these two chapters
were
rewritten, we were all very elated because we felt we were well on our
way to
saving all drunks everywhere.
With
these two chapters in hand, and without any introduction of any kind,
Bill went to see the editors of Harpers Publishing Company. Harpers
immediately caught fire and offered Bill, on the strength of this one
visit,
a $1,500 advance payment to finish the book, plus regular authors
royalties.
Bill said later that he almost succumbed to this offer because that was
big
money in those days and we were all broke. When Bill returned and
reported
this offer, Hank said, If its worth that much for just two chapters
from an
unknown author, its worth easily a million to us, and the trio
immediately
determined that Bill would finish writing the book and our Group would
do the
publishing.
In
August, promotion minded Hank formed our first corporation for handling
this book, to be named 100 Men Corporation and he provided
that two-thirds
of the corporation would belong to him and Bill, the other third to be
sold
on shares at $25 par to friends and members. He announced that
this third
should easily bring us in $10,000, which was to see us through
publication.
Our idea at this time was that the book alone would save the drunks in
the
majority of cases, by self-education. Then it was decided that
there would
be some that the book alone would not do the job for, so another
corporation
was founded at the same time called, The Alcoholic Foundation.
The
Foundations function would be the disbursement of funds and the
establishment of alcoholic farms all over the country. The
money for this,
of course, we would get after the sale of the first million books.
Then we
were faced with the problem of who was to go on this new foundation.
At this
time, August 1938, we had only four men dry over a year in New York.
These
were Bill, Hank, Fitz and Paul Rudell, so to these four Dr. Bob Smith of
Akron was added.
During
this time of promotion, corporations and other such activities, Bill
continued his writing of the book, averaging about a chapter a week.
These
were made up in triplicates, one copy going to Akron, one to the Clinton
Street meetings and the third reserved as an office copy. These
chapters, as
completed, would be ranked and mauled over in the two group meetings,
changes
were noted in the margins and returned weekly to the Newark office.
About
the middle of October 1938 the manuscript of the book was finished and
the
personal stories that appear in the AA book, in its present form, were
contributed by individual members from Akron and New York. As
previously
mentioned, the name of the book at this time was 100 Men and
the new
corporation had finally raised, through forty-nine members in New York
and
Akron, about $3,000.
We
then submitted the book to Dr. Yussel, well-known critic of New York
University this was about the 1st of November and he was paid $300
to edit
the book. Practically nothing was done to the personal stories of the
individual members and there was less than 20% deletion from the
original
manuscript. When Yussel returned the book we found our 100
Men Corporation
broke, the $3,000 gone. The only concrete assets we had besides the
manuscript were some blank copper plates to be used in printing. We
also
found our name 100 Men inadequate for we had forgotten the
ladies and we
already had one girl, Florence Rankin, on the ball. In one or our
discussion
meetings at Clinton Street other names were brought up for
consideration.
Most prominent of these were This Way Out, Exit, The End of the Road
and several others. Finally we hit on our present name. Nobody
is too sure
exactly where it came from but it is my opinion that it was suggested by
one
of our newer members, Joe Worden, who had at one time been considered
quite a
magazine promotion genius, and who had been given credit for starting
the New
Yorker magazine. Hank and Bill finally decided on the name
Alcoholics
Anonymous in the latter part of November 1938.
About
this time we almost had a disaster in our still wobbly group but it
later turned out to be a Godsend. Bill and Hank had distributed
quite a few
copies of the original manuscript to doctors, psychiatrists and
ministers to
get a last minute reaction. One of these went to Dr. Howard, Chief
Psychiatrist for the State of New Jersey. He became greatly
interested and
enthusiastic, but was highly critical of several things in the book, for
after reading it he told us there was entirely too much Oxfordism
and that
it was too demanding. This is where the disaster nearly overtook
us, for it
nearly threw Bill into a terrific mental uproar to have his baby pulled
apart by an outside screwball psychiatrist, who in our opinion
knew nothing
about alcoholism. After days of wrangling between Bill, Hank, Fitz
and
myself, Bill was finally convinced that all positive and must
statements
should be eliminated and in their place to use the word suggest and the
expression we found we had to. Another thing changed in
this last
rewriting was qualifying the word God with the phrase as
we understand
Him. (This was one of my few contributions to the book.)
In the final
finishing the fellowship angle was enlarged and emphasized. After
many
arguments and uproars, the manuscript was finally finished, complete, in
December 1938. We now had one real problem no money.
It
was about this time that the 100 Men Corporation was closed
out and a
new one started named Works Publishing Company. This
name derived from a
common expression, used in the group, It works!! Those
that had stock or
interest in the old corporation maintained the same priority in the new
one.
(Editors Note: Three years later the original stock subscribers returned
all
their shares and interest in Works Publishing Company to The Alcoholic
Foundation Today no individual has any financial interest in
either the
Alcoholic Foundation or in Alcoholics Anonymous.)
Then
a new wrinkle was devised by our master-minds we would make a
couple
of hundred multilith copies of the finished manuscript and these we
would use
as a promotion for more stock selling and at the same time to get
possible
endorsement of well-known people, particularly, in the fields of
religion and
medicine. These copies were distributed to the Works Publishing
Company
shareholders and possible prospective stockholders. With these
multilith
copies we sent out a prospectus for our corporation and a note saying
that
the copy could be purchased for $3.50 and a copy of the book, if when
printed, would be sent gratis to each purchaser. From this
venture, we did
not get one new stockholder. However, the copies did get into all
sections
of the country.
One created quite an amusing incident for it got into the hands of a
patient
in a psychopathic hospital in California. This man immediately
caught fire
and religion all in one fell swoop. He wrote and told us about the
wonderful
release he had from alcohol through our new Alcoholics Anonymous
multilith.
Of course all of us in New York became highly excited and wires bounced
back
and forth between us and our new convert regarding this miracle that
happened
3,000 miles away. This man wrote the last personal history in the
book while
he was still in California called the Lone Endeavor. Our
New York Groups
were so impressed by his recovery that we passed the hat and sent for
him to
come East as an example. This he did, but when the boys met him at
the bus
station the delusion faded, for he arrived stone drunk and as far as I
know,
never came out of it.
The
major result of the multilith was our first important endorsement
outside
of our group and friends. It came from Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick,
pastor of
the Riverside Baptist Church in New York and a nationally-known speaker
and
writer.
So
here we were again, broke, only more so!
Bill
came to our rescue, as usual, by floating a $2,500 loan from Dr. Towne,
who already had a good slice in the original corporation. With the
blank
copper plates and Dr. Townes loan, Hank prevailed on the Cornwall Press,
in
February 1939, to make 8,000 copies for our first edition. The
book was
purposely made to look bulky for two reasons -- to give it an air of
intellectual authority and to make it look like a lot for the money.
The
dust jacket, with its familiar red, black, yellow and white, was
designed by
one of our artist members, Ray Campbell, whose story in the book is
called
An Artists Concept . Although Cornwall did print these 5,000
books in April
1939, they still felt that we were quite short in our down payment and
insisted that the books be kept in a bonded warehouse and withdrawn only
on
the payment of $2.00 per copy. Our method of distributing the
books was to
get possibly ten copies out at a time, and the members would
individually
buttonhole libraries, doctors and others for sales. Funds received
from
these purchasers were in turn used to buy additional copies, which in
their
turn were sold in the same way. About the only bookstores we could
interest
at the start was Brentano's in New York, who did gamble on a half a dozen
copies. Five of the very first books were presented to Dr.
Fishbein, editor
of the American Medical Journal to whom Dr. Towne had lauded AA. Dr.
Fishbein had promised to give us a real buildup in the Journal but when
his
review appeared, it merely said that AA was nothing new and had no real
significance to the medical profession. So another balloon busted.
In
June, Bill and Hank decided to try another promotion stunt this
was to
put a 2 x 3 advertisement in the New York Times Book Review.
This cost us
$250 and I have often wondered where the money came from. We
thought we had
the real answer to publicity this time, and we all sat back and started
guessing and betting among ourselves on the number of requests we would
get
for our million-dollar book. The estimates ranged from 2,000 to
20,000
copies, but we were due for another disappointment, as only two copies
of the
book were sold in spite of our seven-day free trial offer.
It
was about this time that we got our first really active girl member,
Marty
Mann, who took the AA program while under restraint at Blythwood
Sanitarium.
Marty's efforts on behalf of women alcoholics in the early days were of
inestimable value and today she is one of the most indefatigable workers
on
behalf of AA in the country.
It
was also in June of this year that we made our first contact with the
Rockerfeller Foundation. This was arranged by Bert Taylor, one of
the older
members, who had known the family for years in a business way. Dr.
Richardson, who had long been spiritual advisor for the Rockerfeller
family,
became very interested and friendly, and Bill and Hank made frequent
visits
to him, with Hank on one side asking for financial help and Bill on the
other
insisting on moral support only.
Our
first national publicity was arranged through one of our new members,
Morgan Ryan in August 1939. This was a spot on the We The
People radio
program, which was then very popular. Again we were disappointed,
for this
publicity brought us only a dozen inquiries and one book sale. This
was
despite the fact that we sent out 10,000 post cards to doctors and
ministers
in the New York area announcing the broadcast. It was also in
August that a
real calamity befell Bill, for he and Lois were evicted from their home
on
Clinton Street. This had once been Lois girlhood home and was AAs
first
home. Little did Bill and Lois know that for the next two years
they would
be homeless, dependent on the hospitality of other AAs.
About
this time, too, another AA Group was launched in Cleveland, Ohio. The
founder was Clarence Snyder who had received his AA Indoctrination with
Dr.
Bob in Akron. Clarence and his wife, Dorothy, obtained our first
newspaper
publicity, which was in the Cleveland Plain Dealer in September 1939.
As a
result of this publicity the Cleveland Group, within thirty days, became
temporarily the largest group in the country.
Our
first medical endorsement also came in September from Dr. Richard Smith,
Superintendent of Rockland State Hospital in New York. His praise
was the
result of our work with alcoholics in the hospital there over a period
of
approximately six months. The first national magazine to give us a
break was
Liberty, in October 1939, with a two-page article labeled
Alcoholics and
God . This article brought in about a thousand inquiries and
sold possibly
one hundred books. My guess would be that as a summary for the
year 1939, we
had three active groups with a total membership of less than 200 and a
gross
book sale for eight months of less than 500. By the end of 1939
also, AA was
beginning to get some real recognition. At the end of December
that year
John D. Rockerfeller, Jr. issued invitations to some 200 of his closest
associates and friends to a dinner to be held February 8th 1940 at the
Union
League Club in New York. The invitations stated that the purpose
of the
dinner was to have these people meet a group of people on whom
Rockerfeller
had become interested, no name announced. The dinner and the
publicity were
arranged by Rockerfeller's personal publicity man, Ivy Lee. Sixty
actually
attended this dinner, some of the more prominent being Dr. Fosdick, Owen
Young, Wendell Wilkie, Sorenson of the Ford interests and Dr. Foster
Kennedy,
President of the Psychiatric Association. Before this dinner we
felt it
would solve all our problems, especially the financial ones, for Ivy Lee
himself estimated the personal wealth of those present to be well over
two
billion dollars. Fate was against us again despite glowing talks
by Dr.
Fosdick, Kennedy, Nelson Rockerfeller and Bill, the total contributions
to
Alcoholics Anonymous were less than $1,500, $1,000 of which came from
the
Rockerfeller Foundation.
(All of these contributions were later
returned in
full.)
Still
we learned later that we had gained a great deal more than money from
this dinner, for thereafter the Rockerfeller's allowed their name to be
publicly used in connection with AA. It has always been my
contention that
this was the real turning point in the history of AA.
During
the next six months practically the whole country was spotted with AA
groups. Between February and June 1940 Fitz and myself started
groups in
Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore. About the same time Earl
Treat
migrated from the Akron Group to start one in Chicago, and Arch
Trowbridge
also went from Akron to Detroit. It was also during these months
that Larry
Jewell left Cleveland and organized a group in Houston, Texas. Kay
Miller, a
non-alcoholic but the wife of one of the early Akron members moved into
Los
Angeles and started their group. In the Fall of 1940 a Jewish
member named
Meyerson, a traveling salesman, started AA groups in Atlanta, Georgia
and
Jacksonville, Florida.
The
next outstanding event in Alcoholics Anonymous growth was the
publication
of the Saturday Evening Post article. This was mostly arranged
through the
efforts of two well-known Philadelphia physicians, Dr. C. Dudly Saul and
Dr.
A. Wiese Hammer. They had gained the interest of Judge Curtis Bok,
one of
the owners of the Saturday Evening Post and in the early days of
Philadelphia
AA, Judge Bok had been a constant visitor to the group. It was in
a large
part due to his interest that Jack Alexander was assigned to do a
feature
article on Alcoholics Anonymous in August 1940. We were later told
that the
editors also thought Alexander would be a good man to possibly expose this
new screwball organization. However, Alexander did promise
that he would
not write his article until he had visited groups and seen AA in action.
He
traveled from New York and Philadelphia as far West as St, Louis and
attended
AA meetings. His experience with these groups made him so
enthusiastic over
the AA setup that the article he wrote was responsible for the largest
sale
of a single issue of the Post in its history. The Alcoholic
Foundation
office in New York reports that over 10,000 inquiries were received from
this
one article. Even today people coming into AA groups in various
parts of the
country tell us that their first knowledge of Alcoholics Anonymous was
the
Saturday Evening Post article by Jack Alexander.
It
is my guess that in March 1941 there were less than 1,000 active AA
members in the Country and the following year we added at least seven or
eight thousand members.
(Editors
Note: From this point on there is little the writer can add to add
to the all over picture of AA's progress for this can be seen more
clearly
through the eyes of the New York office and the original group.)
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