Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book First Edition 2nd Printing. 1941 ODJ
Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book First Edition 2nd Printing
This is the 2nd Printing of the First Edition Big Book from 1941! This book has the original dust jacket!
The Second Printing of the First Edition Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book was published in March 1941 with 5,000 copies released. The book was released at the same time as the famed Saturday Evening Post article written by Jack Alexander which hit the newsstands on March 1, 1941. Because of the national publicity from the article, AA grew from a membership of 2,000 to over 8,000 in following year.
Two years had passed since the publication of the First Printing of the Big Book. AA was in its early days and during the process of getting the First Printing made there were some errors and corrections that needed to be made. Also, over those 2 years, there was evidence that the program detailed in the book worked. The fellowship was growing and more people were achieving sobriety. So when the time came for the 2nd printing there was reluctance to change the program. But some changes needed to be made. It is often heard around the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous that there have never been any changes to the Big Book. That statement is false! Changes started happening immediately with the 1941 second printing.
When AA requested the “Second Printing” order of 5,000 the printer was able to use a blue cloth for most of this print run. The second printing came in three different colors: Light Blue, Navy Blue, and Red. The majority of the 5,000 copies were in the two shades of blue but a small number were made with the same red cloth left over from the 1939 printing. It is believed that there were only approximately 4,650 First Printings actually printed (the order of 5,000 copies was shortened). It’s believed that the printer may have used some of the remaining red covers on a some of the 1941 books. Also on the front cover of the blue printings, they no longer used the gold lettering for “Alcoholics Anonymous.” The gold was still used on the spine.
In the very first sentence of the Forward, there was a change that now said “more than two thousand men and women” rather than “more than one hundred men and women”.
There was a change to the 12th step on page 72. “Spiritual Experience” was changed to “Spiritual Awakening.” Along with an asterisk that notifies the reader of Appendix II on page 399. The Appendix II was added to the book for the Second Printings and was not present in the First Printing. Page 234 had the misprinted line of text removed.
On page 391, the story “Lone Endeavor” was removed after the First Printing and new content was added which was titled “Now We Are Two Thousand”. The title of this page was updated with the new membership numbers with each subsequent printing of the First Edition until the 10th Printing in 1946 when AA discontinued the update of membership and simply titled the page “Now We Are Thousands”
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This book is in very good condition. A previous owner inscribed their name on the inside of the front cover. There is no other writing inside this book! The covers look great. The spine has some fading to the gilt lettering at the bottom. The spine is firm and fully intact.
The dust jacket has some wear and tears.
This is a very rare book to find in this good of condition. This one is in great condition for being almost 80 years old!
Please view all the photos for the conditions!