Reader's Digest Condensed Books: BILL W. by Robert Thomsen - 1976

Reader's Digest Condensed Books: BILL W.

The deeply moving story of Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous

 BILL W.

A CONDENSATION OF THE BOOK BY

ROBERT THOMSEN

ILLUSTRATED BY GEORGE JONES

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“Who was Bill W., a man who helped change the lives of a million people throughout the world?

A small-town Vermont boy, brought up by an idealistic grandfather, married to a beautiful and spirited city girl, Bill W. was a tangle of contradictions. He was a leader, as he found out during World War I, a powerful persuader, proved by his glittering career on Wall Street, but he was not his own man.

As his dependence on alcohol increased he more and more lost control of his life's direction, of personal relationships-save for the continuing loyalty of his wife-until after one night of terror in Akron he found a fellow sufferer on the same path to self-destruction. Dr. Bob was a Yankee like Bill, a surgeon and a drunk. It took one to know one. It took one to save one. And so Alcoholics Anonymous was born.

How two desperate men, starting from the bottom, parlayed what they had learned from helping one another into a unique worldwide fellowship makes an almost incredible story. At last count, there were twenty-two thousand AA groups in ninety-two countries, plus four hundred or so "loners" who keep in touch by mail and telephone, either with the General Service Office in New York or their nearest local group. In the United States and Canada, so widespread is AA it would be hard to find a telephone book which hasn't an Alcoholics Anonymous number listed for people in need to call.

The story of Bill W. is a stirring spiritual odyssey through triumph, failure and rebirth, with vital meaning for men and women everywhere.

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Robert Thomsen

As a young man, Robert Thomsen left his native Baltimore for an acting career in New York. He graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, and appeared on Broadway in Stage Door, with Margaret Sullavan, and Mamba's Daughters, with Ethel Waters, and was well on his way. At the same time he was writing plays, none of which got further than summer stock tryouts, he recalls.

Then came World War Il and overseas duty as an ambulance driver with the American Field Service. Afterward, Thomsen turned permanently to writing. He did TV scripts for Topper, and published short stories and books, among them Carriage Trade, a historical novel.

He knew Bill Wilson for twelve years. The two had often discussed the book that might one day be written about AA's co-founder, and after Bill's death in 1971 Thomsen started work. With Mrs. Wilson, he traveled to Vermont to talk to Bill's family and childhood friends. He also visited Wilson's associates around the country and, he says, read everything Bill Wilson had ever written. In all his research, nothing touched him more than one yellowing scrap of paper. It was dated February 29, 1904, when Bill was eight, and was a letter he wrote on his typewriter to his little sister, Dot. The signature read: "Your unknown friend, Willie G. Wilson."

That phrase, your unknown friend, was to haunt Thomsen throughout his work on Bill W. and his attempts to pin down the elusive personality of a man whose vision had changed the lives of a million people.

Writing the story, he says, was an education in the invincible human spirit, for as he neared the end of the book he came to see that, in the words attributed to Voltaire, "after all it is no more surprising for a man to be born twice than it is to be born once."

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This book is in very good condition with minimal wear. Book comes with the original dust jacket.

Please view all of the photos for the conditions.