Experience, Strength, & Hope: Stories from the first three editions of Alcoholics Anonymous - First Printing
Experience, Strength, & Hope: Stories from the first three editions of Alcoholics Anonymous.
This is a First Printing of the First Edition of this book and was printed in April 2003.
About this book:
“This collection of stories offers back to the A.A. Fellowship the experience of 56 members whose stories are no longer available in the book Alcoholics Anonymous. There have been three revisions of the Big Book's story section, and each time, as new stories were added to reflect A.A.'s changing membership, others had to be dropped to make room for them. Over the years, more and more A.A. members requested a separate publication of these stories, and as the General Service Conference moved toward publication of a fourth edition of the Big Book, it concurrently asked for publication of this collection, which was approved in 2002.
Co-founder Bill W. was keenly aware of the importance of personal stories, and as he began work on collecting new material for the second edition, he wrote: "The story section of the Big Book... is our principal means of identifying with the reader outside of A.A.; it is the written equivalent of hearing speakers at an A.A. meeting; it is our show window of results." Today, these stories provide a fascinating glimpse into A.A.'s past, for most of the writers got sober before the Traditions were adopted, at a time when the Fellowship was still striving to learn the lessons of its collective victories and mistakes.
The A.As you will meet in Part One (stories written in 1939 for the first edition) were numbered among the first 100 members. They had been sober a very short time — some counting their sobriety in months rather than years — and their faith in the road to recovery was largely untested. Still searching for clear guidelines and uneducated about their alcoholism, they were a little afraid of this "thing" they had found to help them, yet their stories reflect joy in the knowledge that there is a way out for the alcoholic.
Most of the stories in Parts Two and Three originally appeared in the second edition in 1955, and these writers are the product of a more mature Fellowship. A.A. in the 1950s was just coming of age. It had grown to about 146,000 strong with members in more than 50 countries, and the message was being carried to people at all stages of alcoholism, and to more women and young people. By 1976, when the third edition was published, more than a million members in approximately 92 countries included alcoholics of all ages and a huge variety of occupations and lifestyles. The A.A. program had stood the test of time.
Alcoholics Anonymous' membership continues to grow and change, but these stories from the past will never be outdated. The essential A.A. story —"what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now"— is a constant. That timeless formula for A.A. talks rings just as true in these stories from our history as it does today in the meeting around the corner.“
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This book is in excellent condition and appears to be unused. There is some edge wear to the dust jacket at the top of the spine.
Please view all of the photos for the conditions.