Seven Bound Volumes | Thirteen Complete Annual Volumes of Early Alcoholics Anonymous History

Description

Offered here is an exceptional collection of original issues of Cleveland’s Central Bulletin, preserved in seven hardcover bound volumes and beginning with Vol. I, No. 1 — October 1942.

The collection contains thirteen complete annual volumes, with no missing issues within any of the represented runs, spanning the formative years of Alcoholics Anonymous from wartime Cleveland through the early 1960s.

Together, these volumes provide a remarkable primary-source record of A.A. history — not later accounts looking backward, but contemporary reporting on the people, groups, meetings, conventions, service work, and developments shaping the Fellowship as they occurred.

The collection begins when Alcoholics Anonymous was only seven years old and follows its development across two decades as A.A. grew from a young American fellowship into an international movement.

The Birth of the Central Bulletin — October 1942

The collection opens with the inaugural issue:

CENTRAL BULLETIN
Vol. I — No. 1
October 1942
Cleveland, Ohio

The Central Bulletin was created during World War II as Cleveland A.A. confronted a new challenge: members were leaving the city for military service and wartime employment, making communication increasingly important.

Its first editorial explains the purpose of the new publication — maintaining contact, sharing news from the groups, reporting anniversaries and special meetings, communicating with members away from Cleveland, and strengthening connections throughout the local Fellowship.

Even its physical format was considered. The early Bulletin was produced in a size that allowed issues to be retained and assembled for future reference.

The inaugural issue also provides a remarkable snapshot of A.A. at the time, including Cleveland group activity, early membership estimates, efforts to maintain contact with A.A. members in military service, and an announcement for an upcoming Cleveland gathering featuring Bill Wilson.

These are not recollections written decades later. They are the contemporary record of A.A. while its early history was still unfolding.

Cleveland and Early Alcoholics Anonymous

Cleveland occupies an important place in the development of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Following A.A.’s beginnings in Akron and New York, Cleveland became one of the earliest major centers of expansion and demonstrated that the program could grow rapidly beyond the small circles surrounding its founders.

As the Fellowship expanded, Cleveland became an important center for group development, Twelfth Step work, hospitals and institutional activity, central service, public communication, and A.A. publishing.

The Central Bulletin emerged directly from this environment.

Its pages preserve not only major events and well-known figures, but the everyday workings of early A.A. — how groups communicated, organized meetings, handled service responsibilities, welcomed newcomers, carried the message, and confronted the practical problems of rapid growth.

Historical Highlights

1942 — The Central Bulletin Begins

The earliest issues capture A.A. during wartime, when the Fellowship remained comparatively small and Bill W. and Dr. Bob were both actively involved in its development.

The Bulletin reports on Cleveland groups, members entering military service, meetings and anniversaries, service activities, and the continuing expansion of A.A. beyond its original centers.

The first issue includes an announcement for the November 1942 Cleveland gathering honoring Bill Wilson, offering an unusually early contemporary record of the co-founder and the rapidly growing Cleveland Fellowship.

1945 — A.A.’s Tenth Anniversary

Volumes III–IV carry the collection through A.A.’s Tenth Anniversary in 1945, including contemporary material surrounding the major Cleveland and Akron anniversary gatherings.

Among the material preserved in these volumes is correspondence from Bill W. and Dr. Bob accepting the invitation to participate in the celebration, along with anniversary program material and reporting from the event.

At only ten years old, Alcoholics Anonymous had already expanded dramatically beyond Akron and New York. These issues document that transformation while both co-founders were still alive and participating directly in the Fellowship.

The Late 1940s — Groups, Service & a Growing Fellowship

Volumes V–VI document A.A. during an especially important period of expansion.

Before the General Service Conference and before the Twelve Traditions had been formally accepted by the Fellowship as a whole, local groups were already confronting questions involving anonymity, group autonomy, finances, sponsorship, hospitals, public relations, central offices, literature, and service.

The Central Bulletin provides a contemporary window into how those issues were being handled at the group level as A.A.’s customs and service principles continued to develop.

1950 — The International Convention in Cleveland

Volume VIII covers October 1949 through September 1950, placing the entire annual volume around one of the defining events in A.A. history: the 1950 International Convention in Cleveland.

The Bulletin documents the buildup to the gathering and the excitement surrounding A.A.’s Fifteenth Anniversary.

The Cleveland convention became a major milestone for the Fellowship. The Twelve Traditions were accepted by the Fellowship as a whole, and Dr. Bob made his final major A.A. appearance before his death later that year.

For a publication created in Cleveland eight years earlier, the convention represented an extraordinary moment in the city’s place within A.A. history.

1954–1956 — Twenty Years of Alcoholics Anonymous

Volumes XIII–XIV encompass another important transition in the Fellowship’s development.

These years include A.A.’s Twentieth Anniversary, the 1955 International Convention in St. Louis, the era of the Second Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, and the continuing development of A.A.’s General Service structure.

By this period, the Fellowship documented in the Central Bulletin was dramatically different from the organization described in its first issue thirteen years earlier.

1958–1960 — Toward A.A.’s Twenty-Fifth Anniversary

Volumes XVII–XVIII continue the record through A.A.’s twenty-fifth year and the period of the 1960 International Convention in Long Beach, California.

The issues document a Fellowship that had expanded far beyond its early Ohio and New York roots, with an established service structure and an increasingly international presence.

1960–1962 — Twenty Years of the Central Bulletin

Volumes XIX–XX bring the collection into the early 1960s and almost exactly to the twentieth anniversary of the Central Bulletin itself.

That provides a fitting conclusion to the collection.

What began in October 1942 as a modest Cleveland communication effort had survived for twenty years and become part of A.A.’s own historical record.

In connection with the Bulletin’s twentieth anniversary, Bill Wilson looked back on its history and described it as the first publication of its kind in A.A., recognizing the pioneering role it had played in the Fellowship’s early development.

The Bound Collection

Cleveland A.A.’s historical record notes that longtime Central Bulletin editor Harry D. later produced bound copies of the publication for sale, generally combining two years of issues into a single book. A complete bound set was also preserved for the General Service Office Archives.

The volumes offered here follow that historic format, with most books containing two consecutive annual volumes of original issues.

Included in the collection:

Volumes I–II
October 1942–September 1944

Volumes III–IV
October 1944–September 1946

Volumes V–VI
October 1946–September 1948

Volume VIII
October 1949–September 1950

Volumes XIII–XIV
October 1954–September 1956

Volumes XVII–XVIII
October 1958–September 1960

Volumes XIX–XX
October 1960–September 1962

Seven bound books containing thirteen complete annual volumes. There are no missing issues within any of the represented volumes.

Together, the seven bound books preserve thirteen annual volumes from 1942 through 1962. The volumes represented are I–VI, VIII, XIII–XIV, and XVII–XX; Volumes VII, IX–XII, and XV–XVI are not included.

Collection Details

Publication: Central Bulletin
Origin: Cleveland, Ohio
Earliest Issue: Vol. I, No. 1 — October 1942
Latest Issue: Vol. XX — September 1962
Format: Original newsletter issues preserved in hardcover bound volumes
Bound Books: 7
Annual Volumes: 13
Completeness: Complete within each included volume
Period Represented: 1942–1962
Subject: Alcoholics Anonymous history, Cleveland A.A., early groups, service, conventions, literature and Fellowship development

Condition

The seven hardcover volumes show varying degrees of age and use, including shelf wear, rubbing, fading, soiling, edge and corner wear, and occasional marks to the bindings.

Internally, the original Bulletin issues remain well preserved overall, with expected age toning and occasional handling wear consistent with material of this age. The issues remain readable and securely housed within the bound volumes.

Several volumes contain an Ex Libris bookplate for Peg Hurd. No definitive historical identification of the former owner has been established, and no additional provenance is represented beyond the bookplates themselves.

Please review all photographs carefully for the exact condition and appearance of each volume.

Collector Significance

Beginning with Vol. I, No. 1 in October 1942, this collection preserves thirteen complete annual volumes of one of A.A.’s pioneering early publications.

Across its pages are wartime Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill W. and Dr. Bob, A.A.’s Tenth Anniversary, the growth of the Cleveland Fellowship, the development of group service and the Traditions, the 1950 Cleveland International Convention, the Second Edition and Third Legacy era, and A.A.’s emergence as an international Fellowship.

Original early issues of the Central Bulletin seldom appear on the collector market, while substantial bound runs are even less frequently encountered.

For the advanced collector, researcher, or institutional archive, these seven bound volumes represent an unusually substantial body of original primary-source material from the formative decades of Alcoholics Anonymous.