Alcoholics Anonymous Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions - First Printing from 1953

Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions - First Printing from 1953

This book is the First Edition First Printing of the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions from 1953 that was published by Alcoholics Anonymous Publishing, Inc. The First Printing of the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions was also published and distributed by Harper & Brothers.

There were some differences between the two publications of the same book!

The Alcoholics Anonymous Publishing version features shades of blue and black streaking across the entire dust jacket. The book contains a blue cover and black spine with gold text “Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions” and no mention of the publisher on the spine. The title page has no mention of the author and states the publisher as “Alcoholics Anonymous Publishing, Inc.

The Harper and Brothers version features shades of green and black streaking across the cover and spine of the dust jacket. The flaps and back cover of the dust jacket are white. There is text about the book on the flaps and text about Alcoholics Anonymous receiving the Lasker Award in 1951 on the back cover. The book contains a white cover and black spine with silver text “Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions” and “Harper” on the spine. The title page in this book states the author as “Anonymous” and the publisher as “Harper and Brothers, New York by arrangement with Alcoholics Anonymous Publishing, Inc.”

Both versions of the First Printing of this book are notated on the copyright page with “First Edition D-C.”

The Harper and Brothers version is more rare to find today. This is due to the quantity of books printed. The books printed by Alcoholics Anonymous Publishing were intended to be sold directly to AA members and in their traditional market. The Harpers version was intended to be sold in book stores and other avenues managed by a major publishing company. This was important for AA to grow its fellowship and spread the message within the Twelve and Twelve to a broader audience.

Harper and Brothers also published a Second Printing of The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions in 1960. The second printing is very similar to the first printing of the Harpers version with the same green and black dust jacket. The second printing differed in having the book cover entirely black with the silver text “Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions” and “Harper” on the spine. The title page in this book states the author as “Anonymous” and the publisher as “Harper and Brothers, New York by arrangement with Alcoholics Anonymous Publishing, Inc.” on the spine. The Second Printing has the notation “B-K” on the copyright page identifying it as being released in February 1960. The Second Printings are much more rare than the first!

Here are excerpts about the Twelve and Twelve from the Final Report from the Third General Service Conference of A.A. in April 1953:

In order to more clearly identify A.A.'s publishing interests, the name of Works Publishing, Inc. has been changed to "Alcoholics Anonymous Publishing, Inc.," in line with suggestions presented by the General Service Committee. The new name has already been used in Bill's new book, "Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions," and in other recently approved literature.

After long and careful consideration, and following a poll of Conference members, the Trustees approved the publishing firm of Harper & Bros. as distributors of Bill's new book to non-A.A. outlets. The Society retains full ownership of the copyright and remains the actual publisher. The new arrangement will benefit the movement by getting increased attention for a basic document on fundamental principles of the Society, and through certain printing and distribution economies.

Within ten days after announcement of the new book had been sent to the groups, orders for nearly 6,000 copies had been received at General Service Headquarters.

—

Here is a letter from January 1953 that Bill W. sent out with manuscripts of the essays on the Twelve Steps for this book:

“Dear Friends:

Attached you will find my manuscript, dealing with A.A.'s Twelve Steps. This is for your criticisms or suggestions.

Last spring, you will recall, I circulated among you a similar piece of writing on A.A.'s Twelve Traditions.

Since then, following considerable discussion, a plan has evolved which could combine these two manuscripts into a single book which might retail at $2.00 or $2.50.

Harpers, as you know, has made a very favorable offer to act as distributor of the forthcoming volume to the outside public, this in no way to compromise Works Publishing's ownership of the book or its distribution within A.A.

May I have your comments as soon as possible, as it would be an advantage to have the book off the press by the April General Service Conference and Harpers asks three to four months leeway.

Gratefully yours,

Bill”

—

Below is the Foreword to this book which tells more of the history of Alcoholics Anonymous and the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions:

“ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS is a world-wide fellowship of more than one hundred thousand alcoholic men and women who are banded together to solve their common problems and to help fellow sufferers in recovery from that age-old, baffling malady, alcoholism.

This book deals with the "Twelve Steps" and the "Twelve Traditions" of Alcoholics Anonymous. It presents an explicit view of the principles by which A.A. members recover and by which their society functions.

A.A.'s Twelve Steps are a group of principles, spiritual in their nature, which, if practiced as a way of life, can expel the obsession to drink and enable the sufferer to become happily and usefully whole.

A.A.'s Twelve Traditions apply to the life of the fellowship itself. They outline the means by which A.A. maintains its unity and relates itself to the world about it, the way it lives and grows.

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.

Many people, nonalcoholics, report that as a result of the practice of A.A.'s Twelve Steps, they have been able to meet other difficulties of life. They think that the Twelve Steps can mean more than sobriety for problem drinkers. They see in them a way to happy and effective living for many, alcoholic or not.

There is, too, a rising interest in the Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous. Students of human relations are beginning to wonder how and why A.A. functions as a society. Why is it, they ask, that in A.A., no member can be set in personal authority over another, that nothing like a central government can anywhere be seen? How can a set of traditional principles, having no legal force at all, hold the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous in unity and effectiveness? The second section of this volume, though designed for A.A.'s membership, will give such inquirers an inside view of A.A. never before possible.

Alcoholics Anonymous began in 1935 at Akron, Ohio, as the outcome of a meeting between a well-known surgeon and a New York broker. Both were severe cases of alcoholism and were destined to become co-founders of the A.A. fellowship.

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.

After three years of trial and error in selecting the most workable tenets upon which the society could be based, and after a large amount of failure in getting alcoholics to recover, three successful groups emerged —the first at Akron, the second at New York, and the third at Cleveland. Even then it was hard to find twoscore of sure recoveries in all three groups.

Nevertheless, the infant society determined to set down its experience in a book which finally reached the public in April, 1939. At this time the recoveries numbered about one hundred. The book was called Alcoholics Anonymous, and from it the fellowship took its name. In it alcoholism was described from the alcoholic's point of view, the spiritual ideas of the society were codified for the first time in the Twelve Steps, and the application of these steps to the alcoholic's dilemma was made clear. The remainder of the book was devoted to thirty stories or case histories in which the alcoholics described their drinking experiences and recoveries. This established identification with alcoholic readers and proved to them that the virtually impossible had now become possible. The book Alcoholics Anonymous became the basic text of the fellowship, and it still is. This present volume proposes to broaden and deepen the understanding of the Twelve Steps as first written in the earlier work.

With the publication of the book Alcoholics Anonymous in 1939, the pioneering period ended and a prodigious chain reaction set in as the recovered alcoholics carried their message to still others. 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. Clergymen and doctors alike rallied to the new movement, giving it unstinted support and endorsement.

This startling expansion brought with it very severe growing pains. Proof that alcoholics could recover had been made. But it was by no means sure that such great numbers of yet erratic people could live and work together with harmony and good effect.

Everywhere there arose threatening questions of membership, money, personal relations, public relations, management of groups, clubs, and scores of other perplexities.

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 Conference held at Cleveland in 1950. The tradition section of this volume portrays in some detail the experience which finally produced the Twelve Traditions and so gave A.A. its present form, substance, and unity.

As A.A. now enters maturity, it has begun to reach into forty foreign lands. In the view of its friends, this is but the beginning of its unique and valuable service.

It is hoped that this volume will afford all who read it a close-up view of the principles and forces which have made Alcoholics Anonymous what it is.”

—

From the citation of the Alcoholics Anonymous by the American Public Health Association in presenting the Lasker Award for 1951:

"Alcoholics Anonymous works upon the novel principle that a recovered alcoholic can reach and treat a fellow sufferer as no one else can. In so doing, the recovered alcoholic maintains his own sobriety; the man he treats soon becomes a physician to the next new applicant, thus creating an ever-expanding chain reaction of liberation, with patients welded together by bonds of common suffering, common understanding and stimulating action in a great cause.

"This is not a reform movement, nor is it operated by professionals who are concerned with the problem. It is financed by voluntary contributions of its members, all of whom remain anonymous. There are no dues, no paid therapists, no paid professional workers. It enjoys the goodwill and often the warm endorsement of many medical and scientific groups-no mean achievement in itself for any organization run entirely by laymen.

"Historians may one day point to Alcoholics Anonymous as a society which did far more than achieve a considerable measure of success with alcoholism and its stigma; they may recognize Alcoholics Anonymous to have been a great venture in social pioneering which forged a new instrument for social action; a new therapy based on the kinship of common suffering; one having a vast potential for the myriad other ills of mankind."

—

The book is in good condition with some wear to the cover and dust jacket. There was liquid spilled on this book at some point in time leaving stains on the book cover and dust jacket. There is no writing or markings inside the book. This book contains its original dust jacket. The dust jacket is in good condition with some edge wear, stains and fading. 

Please view all of the photos for conditions.