Already a willingness has been achieved to cast out one's own will and one's own ideas about the alcohol problem in favor of those suggested by A.A.

They comfort the melancholy one by first showing him that his case is not strange or different, that his character defects are probably not more numerous or worse than those of anyone else in A.A.

Permanent marriage breakups and separations, however, are unusual in A.A.

Some marry fellow A.A.'s.

The considerations are equally true and important for the A.A.'s who marry "outside" A.A.

(*) In 2003, it is estimated that over two million have recovered through A.A.

Thus has it been with A.A.

They become the real and permanent leadership of A.A.

No matter who you are, no matter how low you've gone, no matter how grave your emotional complications -- even your crimes -- we still can't deny you A.A.

We built a fine-mesh fence right around A.A.

He had at least an idea a minute on how to improve A.A.

It was based foursquare on the single purpose of A.A.

Probably no A.A.

(That was in the period when you couldn't mix money and A.A.)

Whoever pays the piper is apt to call the tune, and if the A.A.

Caretakers who swept floors, cooks who fried hamburgers, secretaries in offices, authors writing books -- all these we have seen hotly assailed because they were, as their critics angrily remarked, "making money out of A.A."

They weren't asked to speak at A.A. meetings because they were "making money out of A.A."

Then we saw that if a hardworking secretary answered the phone dozens of times a day, listened to twenty wailing wives, arranged hospitalization and got sponsorship for ten newcomers, and was gently diplomatic with the irate drunk who complained about the job she was doing and how she was overpaid, then such a person could surely not be called a professional A.A.

They are professional secretaries,(*) but they certainly are not professional A.A.'s.

That guy is making money out of A.A.!"

This Tradition is a constant and practical reminder that personal ambition has no place in A.A.

The trustees of the General Service Board are, in effect, our A.A.

They are the custodians of our A.A.

Tradition and the receivers of voluntary A.A. contributions by which we maintain our A.A.

But many of the suggestions given here may be adapted to help the person who lives with a woman alcoholic -- whether she is still drinking or is recovering in A.A.

These men later became cofounders of A.A.

The second edition added the appendices, the Twelve Traditions, and the directions for getting in touch with A.A.

But our usual A.A. "12 Step" work is never to be paid for.

On the next page, A.A.'s "12 Traditions" are seen in their so-called "short form" the form in general use today.

Jack Alexander's famous Saturday Evening Post piece made A.A. a national institution.

Despite their din, our puny rows never did A.A. a particle of harm.

There is A.A. activity in approximately 150 countries, with an estimated membership of over two million.

This is our gift from God, and its bestowal upon others like us is the one aim that today animates A.A.'s all around the globe.

We liked A.A. all right, and were quick to say that it had done miracles.

When we reached A.A., and for the first time in our lives stood among people who seemed to understand, the sense of belonging was tremendously exciting.

Her husband may become so wrapped up in A.A. and his new friends that he is inconsiderately away from home more than when he drank.

Dr. Harry M. Tiebout, psychiatrist: "As a psychiatrist, I have thought a great deal about the relationship of my specialty to A.A. and I have come to the conclusion that our particular function can very often lie in preparing the way for the patient to accept any sort of treatment or outside help.

Every man and woman who has joined A.A. and intends to stick has, without realizing it, made a beginning on Step Three.

The prospective partners need to be solid A.A.'s and long enough acquainted to know that their compatibility at spiritual, mental, and emotional levels is a fact and not wishful thinking.

But hospitals, as well as other places of recuperation, ought to be well outside A.A. -- and medically supervised.

But hospitals, as well as other places of recuperation, ought to be well outside A.A. -- and medically supervised.

On every lip were the words "You can't mix A.A. and money.

Of alcoholics who came to A.A. and really tried, 50% got sober at once and remained that way; 25% sobered up after some relapses, and among the remainder, those who stayed on with A.A. showed improvement.

Now that we're in A.A. and sober, and winning back the esteem of our friends and business associates, we find that we still need to exercise special vigilance.

Their common suffering as drinkers, their common interest in A.A. and spiritual things, often enhance such unions.

The board would be isolated, and would fall under heavy attack of criticism from both A.A. and the public.

Of course the depressive and the power-driver are personality extremes, types with which A.A. and the whole world abound.

Under the lash of alcoholism, we are driven to A.A., and there we discover the fatal nature of our situation.

Since that time, editors and rewrite men have repeatedly deleted names and pictures of members from A.A. copy; frequently, they have reminded ambitious individuals of A.A.'s anonymity policy.

The A.A. answer to these questions about living is "Yes, all of these things are possible."

Would there be schisms which would split A.A. apart?

We A.A.'s are active folk, enjoying the satisfactions of dealing with the realities of life, usually for the first time in our lives, and strenuously trying to help the next alcoholic who comes along.

All such representatives are to be guided in the spirit of service, for true leaders in A.A. are but trusted and experienced servants of the whole.

All such representatives are to be guided in the spirit of service, for true leaders in A.A. are but trusted and experienced servants of the whole.

"Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole."

Foundation obtained money from outside sources, its trustees might be tempted to run things without reference to the wishes of A.A. as a whole.

It is in this spirit of service that we elect the A.A. group's informal rotating committee, the intergroup association for the area, and the General Service Conferences of Alcoholics Anonymous for A.A. as a whole.

Four -- Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or A.A. as a whole.

As we discovered the principles by which the individual alcoholic could live, so we had to evolve principles by which the A.A. groups and A.A. as a whole could survive and function effectively.

But in relation to us, it means very simply that every A.A. group can manage its affairs exactly as it pleases, except when A.A. as a whole is threatened.

In charting this enormous expanse of freedom, we found it necessary to post only two storm signals: A group ought not do anything which would greatly injure A.A. as a whole, nor ought it affiliate itself with anything or anybody else.

Today, we are able to say with assurance that Alcoholics Anonymous -- A.A. as a whole -- should never be organized at all.

But when it comes to A.A. as a whole, that's quite a different matter.

And no group, regional committee, or individual should ever take any action that might greatly affect A.A. as a whole without conferring with the trustees of the General Service Board.

And no group, regional committee, or individual should ever take any action that might greatly affect A.A. as a whole without conferring with the trustees of the General Service Board.

For the time being, we who were atheist or agnostic discovered that our own group, or A.A. as a whole, would suffice as a higher power.

"A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve."

Nine -- A.A., as such, ought never be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

The basic principles of A.A., as they are known today, were borrowed mainly from the fields of religion and medicine, though some ideas upon which success finally depended were the result of noting the behavior and needs of the Fellowship itself.

If nobody does the group's chores, if the area's telephone rings unanswered, if we do not reply to our mail, then A.A. as we know it would stop.

We have seen A.A.'s ask with much earnestness and faith for God's explicit guidance on matters ranging all the way from a shattering domestic or financial crisis to correcting a minor personal fault, like tardiness.

If all those rules had been in effect everywhere, nobody could have possibly joined A.A. at all, so great was the sum of our anxiety and fear.

So intense, though, is our fear and reluctance to do this, that many A.A.'s at first try to bypass Step Five.

Like so much of A.A.'s basic text, those words have proved to be far more visionary than the founding members could ever have imagined.

First we will wish to be reasonably certain that we are on the A.A. beam.

Many a new man and woman came to A.A. because of such conversations.

Then Jack Alexander wrote a feature article in the Saturday Evening Post and placed such a compelling picture of A.A. before the general public that alcoholics in need of help really deluged us.

We simply couldn't afford to take the chance of letting self-appointed members present themselves as messiahs representing A.A. before the whole public.

The "12 Traditions" of Alcoholics Anonymous are, we A.A.'s believe, the best answers that our experience has yet given to those ever-urgent questions, "How can A.A. best function?" and, "How can A.A. best stay whole and so survive?"

The "12 Traditions" of Alcoholics Anonymous are, we A.A.'s believe, the best answers that our experience has yet given to those ever-urgent questions, "How can A.A. best function?" and, "How can A.A. best stay whole and so survive?"

It resulted in more favorable publicity of Alcoholics Anonymous than could possibly have been obtained through all the arts and abilities of A.A.'s best press agents.

The "12 Traditions" of Alcoholics Anonymous are, we A.A.'s believe, the best answers that our experience has yet given to those ever-urgent questions, "How can A.A. best function?" and, "How can A.A. best stay whole and so survive?"

No individuals have been more buffeted by such emotional gusts than those A.A.'s bold enough to accept employment with outside agencies dealing with the alcohol problem.

In a matter of months, A.A. booms in Middletown.

These A.A.'s bring a wide range of business and professional experience to their service at G.S.O.

This A.A. business, I thought, is totally unscientific.

A corporation director who had just voted a company expenditure of a hundred thousand dollars would appear at an A.A. business meeting and blow his top over an outlay of twenty-five dollars' worth of needed postage stamps.

Many less desperate alcoholics tried A.A., but did not succeed because they could not make the admission of hopelessness.

But suppose that instinct still cries out, as it certainly will, "Yes, respecting alcohol, I guess I have to be dependent upon A.A., but in all other matters I must still maintain my independence.

"We were resolved to admit nobody to A.A. but that hypothetical class of people we termed 'pure alcoholics.'

In the next years alcoholics flocked to A.A. by tens of thousands, largely as the result of excellent and continuous publicity freely given by magazines and newspapers throughout the world.

On the A.A. calendar it was Year Two.

It is only where "boy meets girl on A.A. campus," and love follows at first sight, that difficulties may develop.

How heartily we A.A.'s can agree with him, for we know that the pains of drinking had to come before sobriety, and emotional turmoil before serenity.

In such places, A.A. can be located through the local telephone directory, newspaper office, or police station, or by contacting local priests or ministers.

No A.A. can compel another to do anything; nobody can be punished or expelled.

When told that our Society has no president having authority to govern it, no treasurer who can compel the payment of any dues, no board of directors who can cast an erring member into outer darkness, when indeed no A.A. can give another a directive and enforce obedience, our friends gasp and exclaim, "This simply can't be.

A.A. can, of course, mean just as much to uncounted alcoholics not yet reached.

Any number of A.A.'s can say to the drifter, "Yes, we were diverted from our childhood faith, too.

To these, many A.A.'s can say, "Yes, we were like you -- far too smart for our own good.

We A.A.'s cannot pretend to offer full answers to age-old perplexities, but our own experience does provide certain answers that work for us.

Would the kind of dependence they had learned in A.A. carry them through?

Then he did something else that was to become an A.A. classic.

Sometimes A.A. comes harder to those who have lost or rejected faith than to those who never had any faith at all, for they think they have tried faith and found it wanting.

A.A.'s commenced to thump tables in legislative committee rooms and agitated for legal reform.

We took this violent new tack because here and there members had tried to make money out of their A.A. connections, and we feared we'd be exploited.

We have been considering so many problems that it may appear that A.A. consists mainly of racking dilemmas and troubleshooting.

Tradition and the receivers of voluntary A.A. contributions by which we maintain our A.A.

They are the custodians of our A.A. Tradition and the receivers of voluntary A.A. contributions by which we maintain our A.A. General Service Office at New York.

Since that time, editors and rewrite men have repeatedly deleted names and pictures of members from A.A. copy; frequently, they have reminded ambitious individuals of A.A.'s anonymity policy.

His pet obsession was that A.A. could get along better without its "God nonsense."

They were sure that A.A. could go faster and farther if it availed itself of modern publicity methods.

Without such support, A.A. could have made only the slowest progress.

Without its legions of well-wishers, A.A. could never have grown as it has.

Yes, we of A.A. did dream those dreams.

(*) Father Ed, an early and wonderful friend of A.A., died in the spring of 1960.

Bill W. co-founder of A.A., died January 24, 1971.

We stay whole, or A.A. dies.

Great suffering and great love are A.A.'s disciplinarians; we need no others.

We of A.A. do not question that.

So we of A.A. do obey spiritual principles, first because we must, and ultimately because we love the kind of life such obedience brings.

But the majority experience in A.A. does seem to suggest..."

Thus throughout A.A. does the group conscience decree the terms upon which its leaders shall serve.

We begin to think that A.A. doesn't pay off after all.

Some of the recommendations of A.A.'s early medical and religious friends will be found further on in this book.

As A.A. emerged from its infancy into adolescence, we swung from the idea that we needed vast sums of money to the notion that A.A. shouldn't have any.

The flying-blind period ended and A.A. entered a new phase of its pioneering time.

A.A.'s entered the services and were scattered all over the world.

One of the first members of A.A., entirely contrary to his own desires, was obliged to conform to group opinion.

Of course all A.A.'s, even the best, fall far short of such achievements as a consistent thing.

These quiet disclosures helped him to lose his fear of the alcoholic stigma, and spread the news of A.A.'s existence in his community.

We had approached A.A. expecting to be taught self-confidence.

He said he wished he'd paid some attention to A.A. experience.

Our A.A. experience has taught us that:

A.A. experience has taught us we cannot live alone with our pressing problems and the character defects which cause or aggravate them.

Whenever our pencil falters, we can fortify and cheer ourselves by remembering what A.A. experience in this Step has meant to others.

Yet if A.A.'s experience means anything at all, this is not only unwise, but is actually a perilous resolve.

Can A.A. experience tell all these they may still find a faith that works?

It is A.A.'s experience that particularly in these cases we ought to pray that God's will, whatever it is, be done for others as well as for ourselves.

But again we are driven on by the inescapable conclusion which we draw from A.A. experience, that we surely must try with a will, or else fall by the wayside.

Ten -- No A.A. group or member should ever, in such a way as to implicate A.A., express any opinion on outside controversial issues -- particularly those of politics, alcohol reform, or sectarian religion.

10. No A.A. group or member should ever, in such a way as to implicate A.A., express any opinion on outside controversial issues -- particularly those of politics, alcohol reform, or sectarian religion.

Both were severe cases of alcoholism and were destined to become co-founders of the A.A. Fellowship.

Why did A.A. finally drop all its membership regulations?

Although these attitudes are common enough, we A.A.'s find we need something much better in order to keep our balance.

This resulted in A.A.'s first group, at Akron, Ohio, in 1935.

It was out of this vast welter of explosive experience that A.A.'s Twelve Traditions took form and were first published in 1946 and later confirmed at A.A.'s First International Convention, held at Cleveland in 1950.

Did A.A. fix drunks or was it an educational project?

This individual may be entirely outside of A.A. -- for example, your clergyman or your doctor.

Every newcomer, every friend who looks at A.A. for the first time is greatly puzzled.

He made a beginning, we have seen, when he commenced to rely upon A.A. for the solution of his alcohol problem.

At first that "somebody" is likely to be his closest A.A. friend.

Though the essays which follow were written mainly for members, it is thought by many of A.A.'s friends that these pieces might arouse interest and find application outside A.A. itself.

Surrounded by so many A.A. friends, these so-called loners tell us they no longer feel alone.

The pressure of that fat treasury would surely tempt the board to invent all kinds of schemes to do good with such funds, and so divert A.A. from its primary purpose.

They wanted to shout A.A. from the housetops, and did.

Who is more unpopular than the oldtime A.A., full of wisdom, who moves to another area and tries to tell the group there how to run its business?

Students of human relations are beginning to wonder how and why A.A. functions as a society.

The trustees of the General Service Board are, in effect, our A.A. General Service Committee.

The General Service Board of A.A. (the trustees) administers A.A.'s General Service Office, A.A. World Services, Inc., and our monthly magazine, the A.A. Grapevine.

They are the custodians of our A.A. Tradition and the receivers of voluntary A.A. contributions by which we maintain our A.A. General Service Office at New York.

Where does A.A. get its direction?

Many A.A.'s go in for annual or semiannual housecleanings.

Have we alcoholics in A.A. got, or can we get, the resources to meet these calamities which come to so many?

They are authorized by the groups to handle our overall public relations and they guarantee the integrity of our principal newspaper, the A.A. Grapevine.

They are authorized by the groups to handle our over-all public relations and they guarantee the integrity of our principal newspaper, the A.A. Grapevine.

The General Service Board of A.A. (the trustees) administers A.A.'s General Service Office, A.A. World Services, Inc., and our monthly magazine, the A.A. Grapevine.

So declares a well-loved clergyman who happens to be one of A.A.'s greatest friends.

The Foundation(*) wrote letters to practically every news outlet in North America, setting forth our public relations policy of attraction rather than promotion, and emphasizing personal anonymity as A.A.'s greatest protection.

While the internal difficulties of our adolescent period were being ironed out, public acceptance of A.A. grew by leaps and bounds.

Can we bring the same spirit of love and tolerance into our sometimes deranged family lives that we bring to our A.A. group?

In our early time, nothing seemed so fragile, so easily breakable as an A.A. group.

If you cannot find A.A. in your locality, visit our Web site: www.aa.org; or a letter addressed to Alcoholics Anonymous, Box 459, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163, USA, will receive a prompt reply from this world center, referring you to the nearest A.A. group.

This meant, of course, that we had been given the courage to declare each A.A. group an individual entity, strictly reliant on its own conscience as a guide to action.

An A.A. group, as such, should never go into business.

An A.A. group, as such, should never go into business.

An A.A. group, as such, simply couldn't handle this sort of project.

To certain newcomers and to those one-time agnostics who still cling to the A.A. group as their higher power, claims for the power of prayer may, despite all the logic and experience in proof of it, still be unconvincing or quite objectionable.

An A.A. group can bind itself to no one.

An A.A. group can bind itself to no one.

But in relation to us, it means very simply that every A.A. group can manage its affairs exactly as it pleases, except when A.A. as a whole is threatened.

When A.A.'s Traditions were first published, in 1946, we had become sure that an A.A. group could stand almost any amount of battering.

When the broker returned to New York in the fall of 1935, the first A.A. group had actually been formed, though no one realized it at the time.

Thus it was that under Tradition Four an A.A. group had exercised its right to be wrong.

"At one time," he says, "every A.A. group had many membership rules.

It is in this spirit of service that we elect the A.A. group's informal rotating committee, the intergroup association for the area, and the General Service Conferences of Alcoholics Anonymous for A.A. as a whole.

Whereupon we tried A.A. hospitals -- they all bogged down because you cannot put an A.A. group into business; too many busybody cooks spoil the broth.

While an A.A. group may cooperate with anyone, such cooperation ought never to go so far as affiliation or endorsement, actual or implied.

While an A.A. group may cooperate with anyone, such cooperation ought never go so far as affiliation or endorsement, actual or implied.

Nine -- Each A.A. group needs the least possible organization.

9. Each A.A. group needs the least possible organization.

Ten -- No A.A. group or member should ever, in such a way as to implicate A.A., express any opinion on outside controversial issues -- particularly those of politics, alcohol reform, or sectarian religion.

10. No A.A. group or