A Concordance to Alcoholics Anonymous with a Third Edition First Printing Big Book

This special package includes the first printing of the Concordance to Alcoholics Anonymous from August 1990 as well as a Third Edition First Printing Big Book from 1976 with the original dust jacket.

The information and page numbers provided in the Concordance go along with the Third Edition of the Big Book! The two books go together to make a perfect way to study the AA Big Book!

Here you can read the Forward to the Concordance to learn more about it:

“The work involved in compiling a concordance is so detailed and at the same time so massive a project that I suppose one has to be a bit crazy to tackle it. Or at least more than mildly interested in the book upon which the concordance is based. I guess I qualify on both counts. (Certain friends of mine are convinced it's more of the former, than the latter.)

What also seems to be true is that producing a concordance is not a task that appeals to everyone. I mean, it isn't exactly a mainstream activity. Most people don't even know what a concordance is. How's that for obscurity?

That's because concordances are usually compiled by people like monks - people with 40 years or so available to devote to the task, and no worries about bills to pay. Or university professors whose scholarly occupations allow for plenty of time to devote to the undertaking without the concurrent concern over the loss of their jobs.

Neither Fran nor I fall into either category.

No matter. This book has truly been a labor of love.

For me, compiling a concordance on Alcoholics Anonymous has been a personal dream for more than ten years. Realizing that dream at last is sweet, in-deed. I have a great personal affection for the Big Book. I make my living as a writer, and have for most of my adult life. Again and again I have read the Big Book text with a writer's eye for structure, nuance, flow, style, and other tell-tale signs of the professionalism with which the author approached the task.

Always I am struck by the quaintness of style, often cumbersome sentence structure, and use of outmoded phraseology.

And yet...I don't know...there is something more. A power...a kind of majesty in the words. A deeper meaning that transcends time and quaintness. Even as the words seem to change. Timeless, but somehow always changing. How often have I read a passage and felt I understood its meaning...only to re-read the same passage on some later date when my life was in emotional tur-moil... and come away with a different meaning? And have both meanings be exactly what I needed on each occasion!

I don't even pretend to understand it. I do believe, however, that this particular text was inspired by a Higher Source.

And while I thought I knew the Big Book fairly well, the actual process of compiling this concordance has taught me more about A.A.'s basic text than I ever could have guessed. The more Fran and I worked on the sentences, the more I "discovered" new thoughts, new ideas, new concepts.

Are these discoveries really "new?" No, of course not. They've been there all along. It's just that now I can see them -- and others - in a different light, a different perspective, and a different context.

Does that mean they add more meaning to my life? You bet they do.

And so the more astonished I have become at the very special nature of this book. My admiration for it has grown daily.

One thing is certain.

Anyone who uses this concordance to study the Big Book will find their appreciation for, and understanding of, A.A.'s basic text irrevocably enhanced.

Over time, they will gain a new dimension of delight, wonder, and perhaps even a sense of awe over the power within the pages of Alcoholics Anonymous. They will experience, as have I, a profound change.

And they will never again be the same.

Stephen E. Poe

Minden, Nevada

June 26, 1990”

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Information about the Third Edition of the Big Book:

“Originally published in 1939, when A.A. membership numbered only about one hundred, the first edition of his book went through more than 300,000 copies. The second edition, appearing in 1955, when membership had reached past 150,000, eventually brought the total distribution to over 1,450,000 copies.

By the time this third edition went to the printer, in March 1976, A.A. membership worldwide was estimated conservatively at 1,000,000. The number of personal stories has been increased to forty-four in this edition, in order to represent more accurately the wide variety of individuals now finding recovery from alcoholism in A.A.

But the basic text (pages 1 through 164) remains unchanged. This is the A.A. message, just as it was introduced in the 1939 "Alcoholics Anonymous," the book that gave the young Fellowship its name.

The stories gathered in the second edition under the heading "Pioneers of AA." have been preserved in full in this edition. Thirteen new stories are included in the sections headed "They Stopped in Time" and "They Lost Nearly All."

This edition has been approved by the General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous, in the hope that many more may be led toward recovery by reading its explanation of the A.A. program and its personal evidence that the A.A. program works.”

At the bottom of the back flap of the dust jacket is the notation of “150M-4/76(A)”. This is the exact notation is only present on the dust jackets of First Printings of the Third Edition.

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Both of the books are in excellent condition. The Third Edition big book comes with the original dust jacket which has some wear and tears. 

Please view all the photos for conditions!