Not-God (66 page)

58
    Tiebout to Wilson, 3 November 1950.

59
    Wilson to Tiebout, 9 November 1950.

60
    “To Serve Is To Live — by Bill,” and “Conference Report,”
AAGV
8:1 (June 1951), 3-5 and 6-11; the direct quotations are from 6-7.

61
    Tiebout to Wilson, 12 July 1951.

62
    Wilson to Tiebout, 23 July 1951; the final quotation, directly from the unsent letter misdated 1 July, was muted in the letter actually sent.

63
    General Service Conference themes from each year’s “Final Report;” the Bernard B. Smith quotation from “Report: A.A. General Service Conference,”
AAGV
9:1 (June 1952), 4; the Wilson quotation from “Third G.S.C.: Final Report,” p. 1. “Themes” of the G.S.C. were formally denominated as such only from 1962, and “keynote addresses” since 1968. Prior to these dates, the terms were applied informally by “Final Report” editor Ralph B. (NW, interview of 5 January 1978). My use of the terms in this paragraph is thus informal but appropriately accurate as far as the meanings conveyed and significance inferred.

64
    Conference theme from “Final Report,” p. 1; Jack G., (Santa Monica, CA) to Wilson, 9 July 1954; Wilson to Jack G., 20 December 1954 — this response directly to a Jack G. letter of 23 November: the dialogue had continued through the last half of 1954.

For the formalization of the General Service Board,
cf
. “Landmarks in A.A. History,”
AACA
, p. ix; also “Our Final Great Decision — by Bill,”
AAGV
11:1 (June 1954), 10-11; the actual minutes of the General Service Board are closed to citation.

Re-naming the Foundation had been considered, by some, for at least a decade.

65
    
Cf
. “Our Final Great Decision,”
ut supra;
also the whole of
AACA
.

66
    
Cf
. above, pp. 46-47.

67
    Wilson to Scott B., 4 December 1950, and perhaps most clearly to Charles W., 3 June 1952: “As to changing the Steps themselves, or even the text of the A.A. book, I am assured by many that I could certainly be excommunicated if a word were touched. It is a strange fact of human nature that when a spiritually centered movement starts and finally adopts certain principles, these finally freeze absolutely solid. But what can’t be done respecting the Steps themselves — or any part of the A.A. book — I can make a shift by writing these pieces which I hope folks will like.”

Wilson eventually felt that the same had happened to
12&12; cf
. Wilson to Howard E., 6 February 1961: “As time passes, our book literature has a tendency to get more and more frozen — a tendency for conversion into something like dogma. This is a trait of human nature which I’m afraid we can do little about. We may as well face the fact that A.A. will always have its fundamentalists, its absolutists, and its relativists.”

Some of these changes took place slowly, through the sixteen printings of the 1st edition of
AA;
e.g., “ex-alcoholic” to “ex-problem drinker” first appeared in the 11th printing, June 1947,
cf
p. 28 (1st ed.).

68
    Memorandum, undated, “Revision of ‘Big Book’: points for Consideration,” in A.A. archives:
AA
(2nd ed.), pp. v-x;
cf
. also Wilson to Ralph B., 29 July 1953, where in listing “five faults” of the first batch of stories collected for this purpose, a problem noted in our
Chapter Three
discussion of the aims of the book may be seen rising to haunt: “The hard core of A.A., maybe 50%, consists of people coming from substantial backgrounds.… A.A. experience shows that we have to identify with people on the basis of
where they think they are
— not where
we think
they
ought
to be.” (italics Wilson’s). It seems in response to this perception that the “High Bottom” section was specifically included.

69
    Memoranda in A.A. archives: “Geographical Breakdown of the 37 Stories in the Second Edition” and “Breakdown of Stories in 2nd edition by Sex and Occupation”: “1 Doctor, 2 Lawyers, 6 Housewives, 1 Patent Expert, 2 Organizational Executives, 1 Upholsterer, 2 Journalists, 1 Sculptor, 1 Accountant, 1 Promoter, 1 Real Estate, 1 Salesman, 1 Insurance Investigator, 1 Truck Driver, 1 Charwoman, 1 Beautician, 1 Stock Farmer, 1 Furniture Dealer, 1 Advertising Executive, 1 Insurance, 1 Soldier, 1 Educator, 2 Writers, 1 Banker, 1 Surgeon, 1 Industrial Executive, 1 Buyer.” The additional information on the “patent expert,” “upholsterer,” and “accountant” cannot be cited more specifically without jeopardizing the anonymity of living persons.

Some further information is available from a number of the stories not used. The ten points considered were: “1. Title Impression, 2. Drinking Pattern, 3. Personality Type, 4. Family Status, 5. Education, 6. Social Status, 7. Employment, 8. Story Tone, 9. Length of Sobriety, 10. Spiritual result.” The stories unused do not reveal a profile different from that of the stories used: rejection seems due mainly to (1) too close parallel to another story that was used; (2) failure of the story to meet the “Audience” criteria set down in “Points for Consideration”: “Since the audience for the book is likely to be newcomers, anything — from point of view of content or style — that might offend or alienate those who are not familiar with the program should be carefully eliminated.”

Some information in this paragraph and this note is also based on a letter from Tom P. (New York) to writer, 15 December 1976. Mr. P., an editor for the second edition, was too ill to be interviewed, but his son (also Tom P.) kindly took my questions, asked them of his father, and wrote up his responses.

70
    
AACA
, p. 102;
cf. ABS1
, p. 175; the more telling sociological studies have been cited above,
Chapter Three
, note #41. This point was also discussed with Professor Milton Maxwell, A.A. trustee and sociologist.

71
    Interviews with Chuck C. and Ed. J., 27 March 1976; with Lois Wilson, 16 November 1976; with Joe M., 13 May 1977; letter of Tom P., 15 December 1976. A significant point made vividly clear in most of these (and other) interviews was that degree of “bottom” was judged more by whence one had fallen to it than by what happened
at
it. This understanding of course conformed well with “bottom” as primarily
internal, cf
. above, pp. 60-61.

The most perceptive summary by an oldtimer seems Tom P.’s from the letter cited: “A.A. certainly has turned out to be a middle-class, largely white phenomenon. But at the time we were selecting our stories we were not enough aware of this trend to be concerned with it as a problem. I think in those days we felt that our spread was pretty broad and democratic.”

How A.A. has tried to correct for this in the 1976 third edition of
AA
, and the fellowship’s current membership profile, are matters beyond the scope of this monograph.

For recent sociological opinion on the social class of alcoholics,
cf
. M. B. Jones and B. L. Borland, “Social Mobility and Alcoholism: A Comparison of Alcoholics with their Fathers and Brothers,”
JSA
36: 62-68 (1975); David Robinson,
From Drinking to Alcoholism: A Sociological Commentary
(London: John Wiley & Sons, 1976); also the citations in note #41 to
Chapter Three
, above, p. 332.

72
    
Cf
. especially “Our Final Great Decision — by Bill,”
AAGV
11:1 (June 1954), 10-11; “The Significance of St. Louis: A.A. Comes of Age — by Bill,"
AAGV
11:11 (April 1955), 6-7;

The direct quotations are from Wilson to David H., 16 May 1955, as aptly summarizing “Four O’clock Sunday Afternoon,”
AACA
, pp. 223-234;
cf
. also “What Is the Third Legacy? — by Bill,”
AAGV
12:2 (July 1955), 11: “Alcoholics Anonymous was at last safe — even from me.” The theme was significant enough for Thomsen to pick up
verbatim
as the climactic convention theme, pp. 353-354: perhaps the best witness to its importance in Wilson’s memory.

VI 1955–1971

1
     This history is of course beyond the scope
of AACA;
Thomsen gives it scant attention, pp. 354-368.

2
     The opening quotation is from Wilson to John M., 3 September 1958.

It is under this sensitivity that the only archive restriction beyond the obvious one of anonymity was imposed by A.A. on this research, and it is a restriction this book shall respect. An evaluation of this restriction and more detailed citation for many points to follow appear in the dissertation from which this book is derived.

3
     The distinction is clearer in Wilson to Pat B., ? December 1957: “ …how can I presume to say that my detailed theological convictions are correct? In this search I’ve had the advantage of what seems to have been a very genuine and illuminating spiritual experience, together with many later encounters with the psychic realm, both personal and by observation.”

There is significant Wilson-Heard correspondence from 1948 through 1954, and a telling Wilson-Huxley correspondence through the philosopher’s death in 1964; citable is Laura Huxley (Los Angeles, CA) to Wilson, 26 February 1964, replying to Wilson’s note of condolence at Aldous’s death: “Do you know the profound admiration and affection that Aldous had for you? When he described you, he would say ‘a modern saint.’”

4
     The act of faith as an intellectual “bottom experience” will be clarified in Chapter Eight’s analysis of the “anti-intellectualism” of Alcoholics Anonymous,
cf
. pp. 188-191.

5
     
Cf:
J.A.M. Meerloo, “Artificial Ecstasy: A Study of the Psychosomatic Aspects of Drug Addiction,”
Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
115: 246-266 (1952);

E. S. Carpenter, “Alcohol in the Iroquois Dream Quest,”
American Journal of Psychiatry
116: 148-151 (1959);

C. Savage, “LSD, Alcoholism and Transcendence,”
Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease
135: 429-435 (1962);

K. E. Godfrey, “LSD Therapy,” in Catanzaro (ed.),
Alcoholism
, pp. 237-252, with complete (to 1968) bibliography;

J. O. Cole and R. S. Ryback, “Pharmacological Therapy,” in Tarter and Sugerman (eds.),
Alcoholism
, pp. 721-724, offer the most recent brief report on this research and its literature.

6
     The correspondences between Wilson and Drs. Abram Hotter and Humphrey Osmond make clear this concern as basic; the Hoffer and Osmond correspondences are closed to citation;
cf
. also the treatment, below, of “responsibility.”

7
     A parallel and earlier Wilson interest, again guided by Hoffer and Osmond, was with leuco-adrenochrome. Most adequate and complete on the B-3 point, which is mentioned (barely) by Thomsen, p. 359, are three “Communication(s) to A.A.’s Physicians:
The Vitamin B-3 Therapy
(privately printed, 1965, 1968, 1971), available to anyone with a serious medical interest from P. O. Box 125, Oyster Bay, NY 11771. The 1971 “Communication” contains a letter from Lois Wilson to the three doctors especially promoting this research with B-3. The whole merits reading for several of the points here, but I quote only the final paragraph: “Bill’s great hope was that continued research would find a means whereby those thousands of alcoholics who want to stop drinking but are too ill to grasp the A.A. program could be released from their bondage and enabled to join A.A.” (p. 4).

“reputed to have said”: according to Dr. Russell Smith, interviews of 12 and 13 June 1977; Wilson himself said virtually this in 1967, at Lake Orion, MI — a tape of this presentation is in the writer’s possession.

8
     “Final Report of the 18th General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous” (1968), p. 18; Wilson’s concurrence is clear, e.g., from Wilson to Helen F., 11 July 1966;
cf
. also Minutes of the General Service Board for July 1966: “The Board recognized the need for keeping Bill’s identification with B-3 separate from the business of the G.S.O. and that the office continue to refer inquiries
re
B-3 to Bill’s upstate address and that no A.A.W.S. employees should be identified with Bill’s correspondence and Bill’s letterheads.…” (Extracted from closed “Minutes” by NW to explain closure).

9
     The immaturity critique as applied to A.A. as well as to alcoholics is discussed with citations in
Chapter Nine
; it is reflected in Tiebout (Greenwich, CT) to Wilson, 28 December 1961, which will be quoted shortly.

The consistency of Wilson’s theme in pushing for the trustee ratio-change as an expression of the “maturity” of “responsibility” is especially clear from letters to Jack T., 2 May 1958; to Jim S., 9 June 1959; to Dave B., 14 July 1965; to Nancy O., 18 October 1965.

10
    
Cf
. correspondence cited in the preceding note; G.S.C. themes from each year’s “Final Report;” the final quotation is from Wilson to Jack T., 2 May 1958. On “themes,”
cf
. note #63 to
Chapter Five
, above.

11
    Wilson to Jim S., 9 June 1959.

12
    Tiebout (Greenwich, CT) to Wilson, 28 December 1961.

13
    Wilson to Tiebout, 4 November 1964; Wilson to Jim M., 23 November 1964.

14
    Tiebout (Greenwich, CT) to Wilson, 11 January 1965.

15
    Wilson to Tiebout, 19 January 1965 (italics Wilson’s).

16
    “Landmarks in A.A. History,”
AACA
, p. x; “Final Report of the 15th G.S.C.” (1965), p. 10; in his Conference presentation, Wilson reviewed the “history of fear” he had outlined for Tiebout in his 19 January letter:
cf
. pp. 8-9; the complete 25-page text of Wilson’s convention talk: “In A.A.’s Thirtieth Year: Responsibility Is Our Theme,” is available in the A.A. archives. Its style as well as its content make very clear the depth of Wilson’s feeling about this theme and point. Most noteworthy is his foundation of the responsibility for responsibility in “gratitude” —
cf
. especially p. 12.

The shift in stress from the percentage who eventually “got the program” to the number who “walked into our midst and then out again” is clear from the publication of “The Dilemma of No Faith — by Bill,”
AAGV
17:11 (April 1961), 4; the first hint of the shift in Wilson’s correspondence occurred in Wilson to Howard E., 12 August 1958, which fits the timing and linkage noted in note #9 above.

17
    “Landmarks in A.A. History,”
AACA
, p. x.

18
    Arthur H. Cain, “Alcoholics Anonymous: cult or cure?”
Harper’s
226:48-52 (February 1963);

Jerome Ellison, “Alcoholics Anonymous: Dangers of Success,”
The Nation
198: 212-214 (1964);

Arthur H. Cain, “Alcoholics
Can
Be Cured — Despite A.A.,”
Saturday Evening Post
237: 6, 8 (19 September 1965).

19
    Wilson to Betty R., 11 February 1963.

20
    Morris E. Chafetz and Harold W. Demone, Jr.,
Alcoholism and Society
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1962), pp. 146-165; direct quotations from pp. 161-162.

21
    Chafetz and Demone, pp. 163, 165.

22
    Cain, “Cult or Cure,” 48, 51, 49, 50, 52.

Cain’s initial impetus and expanded critique are available in book, form: Arthur King (pseud),
Seven Sinners
(New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1961) is a novelization of his Columbia dissertation, otherwise unpublished;

Arthur H. Cain,
The CURED Alcoholic
(New York: John Day, 1964) expands the critique on the basis of response to his first article.

23
    Wilson to Betty R., 11 February 1963; Cain, “Despite A.A.,” 6.

24
    Ellison,
op. cit.
, 212-214; Cain, “Despite A.A.,” 8.

25
    Interviews with Nell Wing, 6 April 1977; with Lois Wilson, 7 April 1977; with John C. Ford, S.J., 12 April 1977; “How It Seemed to One Biased Alcoholic Observer,”
AAGV
, 27:5 (October 1970), 16;
AACA
, p. xi.

26
    
AA
, p. 62; on this deeper meaning of “unity,”
cf
.
Chapter Five
, note #16; the ensuing discussion should also make clearer that point.

27
    “Do You Think You’re
Different?”
(New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc., 1976); for a history of the “special group” concern in the Wilson correspondence,
cf
. Wilson to Larry J., 9 June 1942; to Frank L., 24 June 1949; to Mary H., 3 March 1960; to Rose?, 23 April 1962. The importance of this principle to others is witnessed by a letter from John C. Ford, S. J. (Weston, MA) to Wilson, 8 June 1957.

28
    The “common reminder” appears nowhere in print; in my research experience, its use is less common in the Boston area than in New York City and the mid-West.

29
    There is extensive but closed correspondence on this topic in the A.A. archives; John C. Ford, S.J., has given permission to cite his letter to Wilson of 8 June 1957. The Roman Catholic “Calix Society” is one expression of the phenomenon here described; it is explained in William J. Conroy, “Calix — What and Why,”
Columbia
57:4 (April 1977), 30-33.

30
    The direct quotation is from the pamphlet, “Meeting List (January 1977), Central Service Committee, Boston, MA,” p. 2. It is often read at the beginning of meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous.

31
    Based on diverse observations and interviews.

32
    This criticism was a major point of Ellison, “Dangers of Success;” the “legend” is hearsay, and no available documentation supports it, but
cf
. note #33 below.

33
    Deeper appreciation of the point may be aided by the following documentation:

Wilson to Dr. Conrad S., 18 July 1943: “I am astonished at the apparent prevalence of alcoholism among the colored people as you report it. While race prejudice will be an obstacle, I think you can depend on most A.A. groups doing their best for these people.”

Wilson to Joe D., 22 October 1943, repeats this perception, noting of the “stark fact” that “whites refuse to mingle with blacks socially”: “Nor can they be coerced or persuaded to do so, even alcoholics! I know, because I once tried here in New York and got so much slapped down that I realized no amount of insistence would do any good.”

The first “Negro” A.A. group was organized in St. Louis on 24 January 1945; others followed in Washington, DC, and Valdosta, GA, in September 1945 — Torrence S. (St. Louis) to Secretary, Alcoholic Foundation, 20 October 1945; Margaret B. (New York) to Torrence S., 25 October 1945.

At the Third General Service Conference of A.A. in 1953, Wilson answered a question concerning “interracial groups”: “With whatever personal persuasions we have, each of us wants these good people to have, as far as possible, exactly the same opportunity we had. But we do have a lot of different customs and situations in different parts of this country, and this is no place to get up and tell ourselves how broadminded we are. The sole question is this: How can each locality, from the point of view of its own customs, afford a better opportunity to colored people to get well?” (“Final Report,” p. 22).

In a 1959 letter, Wilson to Bob P., 24 April 1959, Wilson used the example of “the race question” to illustrate his point that “While A.A. affects
[sic]
spectacular transformations in the lives of all of us, it by no means makes us perfectly attuned human beings.”

34
    
Cf
. above, pp. 115-116. The internal development may be traced in the following Wilson correspondence: to Larry J., 9 June 1942; to Frank L., 24 June 1949; to Mrs. J. M., 8 December 1959; to Sue K., 19 September 1960; to Lib S., 7 November 1968; to Katie W., 10 April 1969. The concern quieted for a time after the 1952 G.S.C. theme, “Our Primary Purpose,” only to reawaken in late 1957 when intensive correspondence with Betty and Larry T., of Santa Monica, CA, led Wilson to publish “Problems Other Than Alcohol,”
AAGV
14:8 (February 1958), 1-5, since distributed in pamphlet form by A.A.; its theme is well set forth in Wilson to Jack T., 3 December 1957: “In the case of narcotics, I think the issue is confused because of the kinship that to a certain extent there is in the problems. Individuals having a double problem ought to do what they can for the narcotic
[sic]
, there is no doubt about that. But some of these folks fail to realize that the simon-pure addict is only a 1st cousin of a drunk — not his brother.” The concern re-opened under the impact of increasing drug use in the early 1960s, as questions in the G.S.C. “Conference Reports” of especially 1963 and 1964 make clear. In response, “A Group of Doctors in A.A.” published through A.A. the pamphlet, “Sedatives, Stimulants, and the Alcoholic” (New York: A.A. Publishing, 1964), since 1976 published in the same form as “The A.A. Member and Drug Abuse.” This pamphlet opens: “Alcoholics Anonymous is a program for alcoholics who seek freedom from alcohol. It is not a program against drugs.”

35
    This was the specific concern of Betty and Larry T.:
cf
. Wilson to Betty T., 20 October 1957; to Betty and Larry T., 25 November 1957.

“many letters and one key article”:
cf
. note #34 above.

In perusing the Conference minutes through the early 1960s, the readiness with which the delegates followed Wilson on this point while resisting him on the trustee ratio-change is striking.

36
    “Problems Other Than Alcohol,” 2 (italics Wilson’s); Wilson to Betty and Larry T., 25 November 1957; Wilson to Betty T., 20 October 1957; Wilson to T.s, 25 November 1957 (italics Wilson’s).

37
    
Cf
. correspondence cited in notes #34 and 35 above; the
name
concern is also especially clear in Wilson to Paul ?, 8 October 1957; to Rose R., 23 April 1962.