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PREFACE
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It is always out of place to attempt to justify or to demonstrate the significance of a subject in the introduction to its study. If this statement could be intensified, that strengthening would apply preeminently to the subject of Alcoholics Anonymous. Similarly, simple acknowledgment rarely does justice to the depth and the breadth of the assistance enjoyed by any student in the pursuit of his or her subject. If this second observation can be enhanced, that heightening applies especially to this writer on this topic.
Professor Milton Maxwell and Professor George Gordon of the Trustees’ Archives Committee of the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous did more than introduce me to “official” A.A. They offered interest, encouragement, and tempered enthusiasm as well as the approval necessary for research in the primary sources. As the custodian of sensitive materials, the Trustees’ Archives Committee bears great responsibility to the hundreds of thousands of members of Alcoholics Anonymous who have placed implicit trust in their professional judgment. Before the present project, never had any researcher been granted the access to materials that I requested as necessary to this endeavor. Yet, over several meetings I felt not so much screened as welcomed into a sharing of their responsibility. For such trust, I am grateful.
Beyond archival research, this study required immersion in the alcoholism literature and attendance at many meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous. My appreciation of Alcoholics Anonymous as “fellowship” as well as “program” was born at the latter, and for this I am especially grateful to six friends. They have insisted that their names remain completely unmentioned, and I accede to their wish. However I wish to honor their contribution by the simple observation that there is but one term adequate to describe their dedication to this project at its deepest level — love. Their evident commitment to sobriety as honesty and their patience with my early challenges to their beloved program in many ways gave birth to the decision to pursue this project at this depth.
My research in the alcoholism literature, begun at the Center of Alcohol Studies of Rutgers University, was carried on most intensively at the Hazelden Foundation in Center City, Minnesota. As a treatment center for alcoholism and other chemical addictions as well as a research center for problems of addiction and their treatment, Hazelden afforded the most helpful as well as a most congenial setting for my research. I am grateful to the director of Hazelden, Dr. Daniel J. Anderson, to his staff, and especially to the late Sr. Mary Leo Kammeier, C.S.J., of Hazelden’s Research Department for their cheerful good will, profound trust, and enthusiastic assistance.
The historical study of a subject of less than fifty years’ existence necessarily involves extensive research by interview. Especially the following people, significant in the early history of Alcoholics Anonymous, gave generous and infallibly courteous help — at times in the face of questioning that no doubt too often seemed impertinent: Lois Wilson, Henrietta Seiberling, Marty Mann, Clarence S., Warren C., and Dick P. I am deeply grateful to each of these kind individuals for their assistance, honesty, and trust.
A very special acknowledgment must be reserved for Nell Wing, long-time secretary to A. A. co-founder Bill Wilson and present archivist of Alcoholics Anonymous. Her deep knowledge of the materials, her generosity in sharing personal recollections, her faithful devotion to assisting this project, her help with introductions and contacts, her ready response to occasionally desperate requests for verification: all these were exceeded by only one thing — her unfailing cheerfulness in her dedication to service.
At this moment of history, the term “mentor” seems in danger of
PREFACE
----
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
It is always out of place to attempt to justify or to demonstrate the significance of a subject in the introduction to its study. If this statement could be intensified, that strengthening would apply preeminently to the subject of Alcoholics Anonymous. Similarly, simple acknowledgment rarely does justice to the depth and the breadth of the assistance enjoyed by any student in the pursuit of his or her subject. If this second observation can be enhanced, that heightening applies especially to this writer on this topic.
Professor Milton Maxwell and Professor George Gordon of the Trustees’ Archives Committee of the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous did more than introduce me to “official” A.A. They offered interest, encouragement, and tempered enthusiasm as well as the approval necessary for research in the primary sources. As the custodian of sensitive materials, the Trustees’ Archives Committee bears great responsibility to the hundreds of thousands of members of Alcoholics Anonymous who have placed implicit trust in their professional judgment. Before the present project, never had any researcher been granted the access to materials that I requested as necessary to this endeavor. Yet, over several meetings I felt not so much screened as welcomed into a sharing of their responsibility. For such trust, I am grateful.
Beyond archival research, this study required immersion in the alcoholism literature and attendance at many meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous. My appreciation of Alcoholics Anonymous as “fellowship” as well as “program” was born at the latter, and for this I am especially grateful to six friends. They have insisted that their names remain completely unmentioned, and I accede to their wish. However I wish to honor their contribution by the simple observation that there is but one term adequate to describe their dedication to this project at its deepest level — love. Their evident commitment to sobriety as honesty and their patience with my early challenges to their beloved program in many ways gave birth to the decision to pursue this project at this depth.
My research in the alcoholism literature, begun at the Center of Alcohol Studies of Rutgers University, was carried on most intensively at the Hazelden Foundation in Center City, Minnesota. As a treatment center for alcoholism and other chemical addictions as well as a research center for problems of addiction and their treatment, Hazelden afforded the most helpful as well as a most congenial setting for my research. I am grateful to the director of Hazelden, Dr. Daniel J. Anderson, to his staff, and especially to the late Sr. Mary Leo Kammeier, C.S.J., of Hazelden’s Research Department for their cheerful good will, profound trust, and enthusiastic assistance.
The historical study of a subject of less than fifty years’ existence necessarily involves extensive research by interview. Especially the following people, significant in the early history of Alcoholics Anonymous, gave generous and infallibly courteous help — at times in the face of questioning that no doubt too often seemed impertinent: Lois Wilson, Henrietta Seiberling, Marty Mann, Clarence S., Warren C., and Dick P. I am deeply grateful to each of these kind individuals for their assistance, honesty, and trust.
A very special acknowledgment must be reserved for Nell Wing, long-time secretary to A. A. co-founder Bill Wilson and present archivist of Alcoholics Anonymous. Her deep knowledge of the materials, her generosity in sharing personal recollections, her faithful devotion to assisting this project, her help with introductions and contacts, her ready response to occasionally desperate requests for verification: all these were exceeded by only one thing — her unfailing cheerfulness in her dedication to service.
At this moment of history, the term “mentor” seems in danger of
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