How to Identify a First Edition Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book

Someone finds an old copy of Alcoholics Anonymous in a box, on a bookshelf, or among a relative’s belongings. The cover looks old. There may even be a date of 1939 inside.

Then comes the question we hear all the time:

“Do I have a First Edition Big Book?”

Fortunately, there are several fairly simple things you can look for.

And the first thing to understand is that a First Edition is not necessarily a First Printing.

First Edition vs. First Printing

The original Alcoholics Anonymous was published in April 1939. That was the First Edition, First Printing.

But the First Edition remained in print for another fifteen years. Altogether, there were sixteen printings of the First Edition between 1939 and 1954. A substantially revised Second Edition followed in 1955. 

So a Big Book printed in 1941, 1945, 1948, or even 1954 may still be a genuine First Edition.

That distinction causes a lot of confusion.

Start with the Copyright Page

Before judging the color of the cover, the dust jacket, or anything else, open the book and look at the copyright page.

This is your best starting point.

Original First Edition Big Books identify their printing and publication information there. Later First Edition printings can sometimes look remarkably similar from the outside, so the copyright page should always come before trying to identify a book by appearance alone.

Once you know the printing stated there, the fun begins: you can check whether the rest of the book agrees.

Look at The Doctor’s Opinion

Here is one of the easiest clues.

Open an original First Edition Big Book and The Doctor’s Opinion begins on numbered page 1.

That remains true through all sixteen First Edition printings.

When the Second Edition appeared in 1955, The Doctor’s Opinion was moved forward into the Roman-numeral introductory pages, and Bill’s Story became page 1. 

So if you’re holding an old Big Book, checking page 1 can quickly tell you quite a bit.

Think You’ve Found a 1939 First Printing? Turn to Page 234

This is probably the best-known identification trick in Big Book collecting.

The 1939 First Printing contains a printing error on page 234, where a line near the bottom of the page was accidentally printed twice.

The mistake was corrected in the Second Printing. 

That little error has become one of the classic fingerprints of an original First Printing.

There are other identifying features, of course, but if someone tells us they have a 1939 First Printing, page 234 is one of the first places we look.

Page 391 Tells a Story

Another favorite place to look is page 391.

As Alcoholics Anonymous grew, the closing portion of the Big Book was updated to reflect the Fellowship’s expanding membership.

Across the early printings you’ll find:

• First Printing: “Lone Endeavor”
• Second Printing: “Now We Are Two Thousand”
• Third Printing: “Now We Are Six Thousand”
• Fourth Printing: “Now We Are Eight Thousand”
• Fifth and Sixth Printings: “Now We Are Ten Thousand”
• Seventh and Eighth Printings: “Now We Are Fourteen Thousand. January 1945”
• Ninth Printing: “Now We Are Twenty-Three Thousand”
• Tenth through Sixteenth Printings: “Now We Are Thousands” 

It’s one of the things that makes collecting the different printings so interesting. You’re not just looking at changes to a book—you can actually watch A.A. grow through its pages.

The Covers Changed Too

Don’t assume that every First Edition Big Book should have the same blue cover.

The earliest printings appeared in several cloth colors.

The First Printing was bound in red cloth. The Second Printing is known in light blue, navy blue, and a very scarce red binding. The Third Printing appeared in light blue, navy blue, and olive green, while the Fourth is known in olive green and navy blue. The Fifth was light blue. From the Sixth through the Sixteenth Printing, navy blue became standard. 

That gives collectors twenty-one recognized binding variants among the sixteen First Edition printings.

But don’t identify a book from color alone. Cloth fades, stains, and changes considerably with age. Always use the binding as supporting evidence rather than your starting point.

Size Can Be a Clue

The physical Big Book also changed over time.

The first five printings are the large, thick-paper books that really look worthy of the nickname “Big Book.”

The Sixth and Seventh retained the same height and width but became thinner. Then came the Eighth Printing of February 1945—the smallest of all sixteen First Edition Big Books.

Beginning with the Ninth Printing in 1946, the book became slightly larger again and settled into the general format used through the end of the First Edition era in 1954. 

Put several early printings next to one another and these changes become surprisingly easy to see.

Don’t Forget the Dust Jacket

All sixteen First Edition printings used some version of the familiar red-and-yellow jacket collectors often call the “circus jacket.”

At first glance they can look almost identical.

They’re not.

The original 1939 First Printing jacket does not state a printing number. Beginning with the Second Printing, printing information appears on the jacket spine and flap. Jacket dimensions also changed as the size of the Big Book changed. 

And because dust jackets were meant to be disposable protection, original examples survive in far smaller numbers than the books themselves.

One important caution: reproduction dust jackets are common today. A beautiful circus jacket does not automatically mean it is original. The book and jacket need to be examined separately.

Watch Out for Later Reproductions

This is an especially important point if you’ve just discovered an apparently very old Big Book.

There have been later reproductions and facsimile editions made to resemble early First Edition Big Books. These can cause understandable confusion, particularly when someone inherits a copy without knowing its history.

Among them are reproductions produced by Carry the Message in Ohio beginning in the 1980s, as well as the official 75th Anniversary Edition produced by Alcoholics Anonymous in 2014, which reproduced the appearance of the original 1939 book.

These can be interesting books in their own right, but they are not original First Edition Big Books printed between 1939 and 1954.

We regularly hear from people who have found one of these copies and understandably think they may have discovered an original.

So before getting too excited about that remarkably clean “1939” Big Book, check the publication information carefully.

A Quick First Edition Checklist

If you have an old Big Book sitting in front of you, here’s where we’d start:

1. Check the copyright page.
What printing and publication information does it give?

2. Check page 1.
Does The Doctor’s Opinion begin there?

3. If it appears to be a First Printing, check page 234.
Is the repeated-line printing error present?

4. Check page 391.
What “Now We Are…” statement—or story—appears there?

5. Look at the binding.
What color is the cloth, and does it make sense for that printing?

6. Look at the size and thickness.
Does the physical format correspond with the printing?

7. Examine the dust jacket separately.
Is it original, supplied from another copy, or a modern reproduction?

8. Make sure the entire book isn’t a later reproduction.

No single clue should be used by itself. The best identification comes when the copyright page, text, binding, physical format, and dust jacket all tell the same story.

Want to Go Further?

This is only the quick version.

We created The Collector’s Guide to First Edition Big Books as a free illustrated reference covering all sixteen printings from 1939–1954, including the twenty-one recognized binding variants, major identification points, physical changes, dust jackets, and collector notes.

Whether you’ve been collecting Big Books for years or you’ve just found an old copy and wondered what it is, learning to identify these books is part of what makes them so interesting.

Each printing is a little different—and taken together, they provide a physical timeline of the remarkable growth of Alcoholics Anonymous from a small fellowship in 1939 to the worldwide movement it was becoming by 1954.