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(NEW) Book Review Added January 16, 2002

To Be Continued -AA World Bibliography 1934-1994
(by Charles Bishop and Bill Pittman 1994)

Published by The Bishop of Books
Charlie Bishop, Jr.-AA Hisorian
Wheeling, WV
ISBN 1-877868-07-7 $25


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Book Review Following is by Ernest Kurtz, Ph.D.,
author of NOT-GOD. A History of AA.
From the original back cover quote:.

We know, at the same time, both too much and too little about Alcoholics Anonymous. Too much because so many have shared their experience or expressed their opinions; too little because in the midst of all those contributions, how can we find what is worthwhile, what may interest us, what may add to our own experience, strength and hope?

Charlie Bishop, book-lover and A.A.lover extraordinaire, offers a finding and winnowing tool that will benefit generations of people interested in Alcoholics Anonymous. This bibliography comes as close to comprehensiveness as zeal and dedication and skill and love and perseverance can accomplish. Organized lists, careful citations, brief and telling annotations: here we have it all – all the guide anyone could want to the riches of A.A. publications and Grapevine articles, popular magazine and scholarly journal articles, chapters in books, theses and dissertations, even a listing of tapes and records... and more!

This bibliography is both useful tool and an invitation to leisurely browsing. Need to find articles on A.A. that appeared in women’s magazines? You will find more – or perhaps fewer? – than You expected. Interested in the various criticisms leveled against A.A.? Here is an index of both popular and scholarly challenges. Have a few spare hours to indulge your interest in the ways writers have described A.A., in how the fellowship and its program have been portrayed over time? Open at random and turn the pages at your leisure.

Rarely have we seen a book that so well serves the diverse needs of the curious
and the scholarly, lovers of Alcoholics Anonymous and those just plain fascinated
by its fellowship and program. Charlie, thank you!

Dedicated to Ernest Kurtz PhD
who opened the door & Also dedicated
to the new AA historians & Archivists
(You know who you are)

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Users Manual;

The reader is advised this bibliography is the successor of the first edition which appeared in 1989 and is now out of print. Since then we have doubled the number of citations and added six new chapters on Grapevine Publications, Foreign Publications, Ephemera, Tapes, TV & Films, and Works in Progress.

The index has been completely revised. It is still a broad indexing based on AA's spiritual, Inclusiveness and open-mindedness. We aimed at suggestiveness and AA's open doors, not scientific terminology. We have leaned heavily toward Fellowship language. For example, hitting bottom and surrender have been used rather than technical terms. For many short works which only briefly describe or comment on AA, the terms basics or mention are used to indicate repetition of brief, commonly knowri facts about AA.

How AA members are listed alphabetically as authors has changed. In this edition, we have listed AA members by their first name, then last initial. So an article written by AA member John S. will be found under J for John and not under S. The exceptions are Bill Wilson, AA's Co-Founder, who will be found in most instances under W for Wilson [since that is how most AA members commonly refer to him]; for Robert H. Srnith, W.D., AA's other Co-Founder, he again is listed under D for his common AA name of Dr. Bob. Also Marty Mann and others who used their full names and did not hide their membership in the years before the Traditions were accepted. AA members who have broken their anonymity are listed under the initial of their last name.

We have dropped several indexing terms, including doctors and clergy to indicate authorship by members of those two groups. When the two terms now appear in the index, they indicate works in which the content concerns doctors or clergy as a group.

If the reader cannot find an author or article in the chapter on Popular Magazine Articles, it may be listed in another chapter, maybe the one on Chapters About AA in Books if it has been anthologized or perhaps the chapter on Books and Pamphlets About AA it it has been reprinted separately.

Please note that reprints of the Big Book wilt not be found in the chapter on A.A. Approved Publications but rather in the chapter Books & Pamphlets about AA since these reprints were not published by AAWS.

If you can't find a work under author or title in one chapter, try other appropriate chapters.

Obvious as it is, we stress that neither approval nor disapproval is implied by the inclusion of any author or work here and any evaluations of them are, of course, the authors.

Acknowledgments

Our heartfelt, spiritual thanks to the following authors,
Fellowship members, institutions, and individuals for
their advice suggestions, and information.

= To Alcoholics Anonymous Archives and the many
AA Archivists and historians around the country, especially
Doug B., Wally P., and Andrea M.

= to Steve Berg and Richard Koehn, the former
Executive Director of Guest House, where much of the
work on Berg's bibliographies on spirituality was done.

= to Mark Keller, General Editor of The International
Bibliography of Studies on Alcohol, the landmark 3-volume
Rutgers set, l 956-80.

= to the late Barry Leach and the late John L. Norris,
authors of Factors in the Development of Alcoholics
Anonymous in Kissin &, Begleiter, editors, Treatment and
Rehabilitation of the Chronic Alcoholic. Vol. 5, Plenum
Press, NY, 19/7. Their early bibliographical research
was an historic landmark in the literature of AA.
= to Julianne Phillips, author of the 1974 Alcoholics
Anonymous. An Annotated Bibliography 1935-1972.
Click on Barry Leach's name to view page I did about him.

To Be Continued
Introduction to 1994 Edition

Written by Charles Bishop
Presented in Digital format-Scanning Not Done!!
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To Be Continued by Charles Bishop, Jr.

Our title for this second edition of the Bibliography of Alcoholics Anonymous captures, we hope, the spirit of this book. The doors of AA are very wide. The Fellowship in its literature has always emphasized suggestiveness, open-mindedness, spiritual serendipity, and progress not perfection. To Be Continued leaves plenty of room for the grace at God and human imperfection together; allows ample space for growth while assuming the experience, strength, and hope of the past.

Since the first edition in 19S9, this work has grown immensely. Thus, we were bold enough to call this book a World bibliography. New chapters on foreign publications, ephemera, electronic mediums and works in progress plus over 2,900 citations, double the number in the first edition, remind one of that wonderful phrase from the first edition [2nd Thru 16th printings, p. 394] of the Big Book, the warp and wool of A.A. everywhere.

Looking at the Thousands of works here, one is immediately impressed by the sheer quantity of what's here and, even more, one stands in awe of what's not here. The new chapter on Tapes about AA only selects some 200 tapes from the hundreds of thousands of tapes recorded around the world for the past 50 plus years. Our new chapters on Foreign Publications, Ephemera, and TV-Films are nothing more than a hint of a whisper. They only suggest beginnings. Perhaps others will reve up their computers and launch safaris into these virgin lands. Right now, this author is drained.

Overall, This edition holds over 2,900 citations, double the first edition listings but while publications from non-AA sources reflects that, The literature from AA itself, Conference-approved and Grapevine material, has not grow excessively. It is obvious that the foundations of AA remain unchanged since the l 939 publication at Alcoholics Anonymous, the Big Book. Clearly, the history, ideology, spirituality, principles, philosophy, and fellowship of AA remain rock-solid. There have been no changes in the Three Legacies of Recovery, Unity, and Service: the Twelve Steps, Traditions and Concepts. The basic texts of AA, the Big Book, The Service Manual. The Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions. Alcoholics Anonymous Corner of Age: A Brief History of A.A.. etc., have not been revised. They have withstood the test of time and

New publications from AA include the Daily Refection’s meditation book, the Grapevine Index, and others, but these hold no new primary principles. Work on the projected History of AA book has been put on the back burner for two years, this after three different sets of author: brought it through various drafts. The difficulty of getting this full-scale history of the Fellowship into a final draft and published certainly has concerned the General Service Conference Of A.A. for several years. One wonders what the practical and spiritual holdups on this book are, and, at the same time, anxiously await its appearance

Well, no historical works have come from A.A., this is certainly not the case with an exciting, dynamic, spiritual group of authors who are expanding and deepening and preserving AA's history, both inside and outside the A.A. service structure.

It all started with Ernest Kurtz, Ph.D. who was given full access la the A.A. Archives. in 1919 his book, NOT-GOD: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous, was published. Although other studies of AA history and its development preceded his, none had the explosive impact his did. NOT-GOD now stands as the definitive history of AA to dale, although Kurtz would be the first to reject the definitive” adjective. NOT-GOD has become the inspiration for all the new archivists of the Fellowship. The floodgates were opened and a river of books has flowed (forth! Original research, interpretations of AA ideology, past experiences from AA old-timers, biographies of founding members, histories of AA in local area...the list is long. We now live in the most exciting times for AA history since the founding years!

Books about Sister Ignatia, Fellowship slogans and prayers, the Washingtonians, the Oxford Group, Sam Shoemaker, early AA history, AA old-timers, histories of AA in Washington, Oregon, West Virginia, Arizona, etc., interpretations of AA's Twelve Steps, reprints of the Big Book and its early stories, bibliographies, concordances, etc.... these are all documented in this bibliography along with a new chapter on forthcoming Works in Progress.

One is immediately impressed with the authorship almost universally (with exceptions, of course] characterized by respect for AA‘s Traditions, especially anonymity. The authors of all these new volumes have left out their last names if they are AA members or not revealed their Fellowship membership if they have used their full names

They have all again almost been motivated by a deep loving passion for their spiritual roots. This author has maintained contact professionally with the vast majority of them. One is impressed that the temptations of money, power and prestige have not seduced them. Many have been AA area archivists within the service structure and labored long without pay or pride or power to preserve and pass on local AA history.

This new river of books is in no way a criticism of AA itself since the General Service Office, the AA Archives, or the Grapevine would not be able to publish these books without breaking Traditions or stepping into opinions on outside issues to mention but two reasons. And one can also note that none of these new books have challenged any at the Fellowship's Three Legacies. To the contrary, they have deepened their appreciation and strengthened the historical documentation of them.

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