dickb
07-05-2009, 05:58 PM
10
The Verification of Early A.A.'s Astonishing Successes
© 2009 Dick B. All rights reserved
[Extract from Chapter 10 of The Dick B. Christian Recovery Manual—to be released soon]
The Starting Point
Early A.A.—prior to the publication of the First Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (the "Big Book") in April 1939—claimed a 75% success rate among "seemingly-hopeless," "medically-incurable," "real" alcoholics who thoroughly followed the program A.A. cofounders Bill W. and Dr. Bob began developing and putting into practice during the summer of 1935.
Early A.A.'s 75% Success Rate
Let us begin our discussion with the following statement from the "Foreword to Second Edition" found in "the Fourth Edition of the Big Book, the Basic Text for Alcoholics Anonymous":
Of alcoholics who came to A.A. and really tried, 50% got sober at once and remained that way; 25% sobered up after some relapses, and among the remainder, those who stayed on with A.A. showed improvement.
The statement above, found in A.A. General Service Conference-approved literature, echoes A.A. cofounder Bill Wilson's remarks at the "Rockefeller Dinner" on February 8, 1940:
To continue with what had happened out in Akron. By the time the book was published last April [of 1939] there were about one hundred of us, the majority of them in the West. Although we have no exact figures, in counting heads recently, we think it fair to state that of all the people who have been seriously interested in this thing since the beginning, one-half have had no relapse at all. About 25% are having some trouble, or have had some trouble, but in our judgment will recover. The other 25% we do not know about.
In a letter written on Dr. Bob's behalf to the Guggenheim Foundation in hopes of gaining a fellowship for Dr. Bob, Bill W. had written:
"At Akron, Ohio, there is a physician, Dr. Robert H. Smith, who has been responsible during the past four years for the recovery of at least 100 chronic alcoholics of types hitherto regarded by the medical profession as hopeless . . .
"For more than four years, without charge to sufferers, without fanfare and almost without funds, Dr. Smith has carried on work among alcoholics in the Akron-Cleveland area. In this human laboratory, he has proved that any alcoholic, not too mentally defective, can recover if he so desires. The possible recovery among such cases has suddenly been lifted from almost nil to at least 50 percent, which, quite aside from its social implications, is a medical result of the first magnitude. Though, as a means of our recovery, we all engage in the work, Dr. Smith has had more experience and has obtained better results than anyone else."
After having made an extensive investigation of A.A., Jack Alexander wrote the following in his famous March 1, 1941, article in the Saturday Evening Post titled "Alcoholics Anonymous":
One-hundred-percent effectiveness with non-psychotic drinkers who sincerely want to quit is claimed by the workers of Alcoholics Anonymous. The program will not work, they add, with those who only "want to want to quit," or who want to quit because they are afraid of losing their families or their jobs. The effective desire, they state, must be based upon enlightened self-interest; the applicant must want to get away from liquor to head off incarceration or premature death. He must be fed up with the stark social loneliness, which engulfs the uncontrolled drinker, and he must want to put some order into his bungled life.
As it is impossible to disqualify all borderline applicants, the working percentage of recovery falls below the 100-percent mark. According to A.A. estimation, 50 per cent of the alcoholics taken in hand recover almost immediately; 25 per cent get well after suffering a relapse or two, and the rest remain doubtful. This rate of success is exceptionally high. Statistics on traditional medical and religious cures are lacking, but it has been informally estimated that they are no more than two or three per cent effective on run-of-the-mine cases.
Writing to a member trying to get A.A. started in a new city, Bill Wilson said:
I explain this at some length because I want you to be successful with yourself and the people with whom you work. We used to pussyfoot on this spiritual business a great deal more out here [in New York City] and the result was bad, for our record falls quite a lot short of the performance of Akron and Cleveland, where there are now about 350 alcoholics, many of them sober 2 or 3 years, with less than 20% ever having had any relapse.”
In 1958, Bill Wilson addressed the New York City Medical Society on Alcoholism. The subject was "Alcoholics Anonymous—Beginnings and Growth." He told the physicians:
As we gained size, we also gained in effectiveness. The recovery rate went way up. Of all those who really tried A.A., a large percent made it at once, others finally made it; and still others, if they stayed with us, were definitely improved. Our high recovery rate has since held, even with those who first wrote their stories in the original edition of "Alcoholics Anonymous." In fact, 75 per cent of these finally achieved sobriety. Only 25 per cent died or went mad. Most of those still alive have now been sober for an average of twenty years.
Joe Mc Q. (now deceased) and Charlie P. are two venerable Arkansas AAs who conducted A.A. Big Book Seminars around the world. And they often made these telling observations:
If you look at the top of page xx in the Big Book, you’ll see just how effective the book was when the fellowship’s recovery program and the recovery program described in the book were the same. Perhaps xx explains that AA grew by leaps and bounds. . . . Half of all the alcoholics who came to AA and seriously and sincerely tried to recover got sober immediately and stayed that way. Another 25 per cent sobered up a little more slowly. So in the beginning, when the fellowship program and the program of the Big Book were the same, it is estimated that 75% of the people who used the Twelve Step program and really tried to recover from the disease of alcoholism actually did. We wonder what the percentage is today. We doubt seriously if it’s 50 percent, let alone 75 per cent. . . . The only thing that has really changed is the fellowship itself.
A number of other writers on A.A. history have also concluded that these success rate figures are reliable. Now, how about the actual numbers of people upon which these rates are based?
Some Early Numbers
Addressing his lecture to the distinguished gathering at the Yale School of Alcohol Studies in 1945, Bill Wilson introduced the following statistics:
Such has been the alcoholic’s dilemma time out of mind, and it is altogether probable that even of those alcoholics who did not wish to go on drinking, not more than 5 out of 100 have ever been able to stop, before A.A.
And little by little we began to grow so that there were 5 of us at the end of that first year; at the end of the second year, 15; at the end of the third year, 40; and at the end of the fourth year, 100.
One of the important factors in getting a handle on early A.A.'s successes and success rates is to realize that the number of people actively involved in the earliest days was relatively small. Another important factor is that most of the pioneer AAs knew (or got to know) each other well.
A comment in the A.A. General Service Conference-approved book, DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, offers some insight on these points:
When Bill left Akron in late August 1935, there were four members—possibly five counting Phil, who might have been in the process of drying out.
From that fall to spring, Bill helped Hank P. and Fitz M., among others, get sober in New York. . . .
. . . .
In February 1937, another count was taken, and there were seven additional members in Akron, for a total of 12. Half of these had or would have some sort of slip, and at least one would never be really successful in the A.A. program thereafter. For most, however, the slip was the convincer. . . .
There were dozens of others who were exposed to the program up to February 1937. Some were successful for a time, then drifted away. Some came back. Others died. Some, like "Lil," may have found another way.
"Counting the Noses of Our Recoveries" in November 1937
DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers also comments on the November 1937 meeting between Bill W. and Dr. Bob which led to the decision that a book about their cure for alcoholism would be needed.
In November of that year [i.e., 1937], Bill Wilson went on a business trip that enabled him to make a stopover in Akron. . . .
Bill's writings record the day he sat in the living room with Doc, counting recoveries. "A hard core of very grim, last-gasp cases had by then been sober a couple of years," he said. "All told, we figured that upwards of 40 alcoholics were staying bone dry.
. . .
Up to then, prospects had come to the founders from other cities. Now, the question was whether every alcoholic had to come to Akron or New York to get sober. Was it possible to reach distant alcoholics? Was it possible for the Fellowship to grow "rapidly and soundly"?
This was when Bill began to think . . . of writing a book of experiences that would carry the message of recovery to other cities and other countries.
Let us now look at this vitally-significant November 1937 meeting in more detail.
In an October 1945 article in the A.A. Grapevine titled "The Book Is Born," Bill referred to his meeting with Dr. Bob in Akron in November 1937 as follows:
By the fall of 1937 we could count what looked like forty recovered members. One of us had been sober three years, another two and a half, and a fair number had a year or more behind them. As all of us had been hopeless cases, this amount of time elapsed began to be significant. The realization that we had "found something" began to take hold of us. No longer were we a dubious experiment. Alcoholics could stay sober. Great numbers, perhaps! While some of us had always clung to this possibility, the dream now had real substance. If forty alcoholics could recover, why not four hundred, four thousand — even forty thousand?
In the quote above, Bill spoke of having counted "what looked like forty recovered members." He also spoke about much larger numbers of alcoholics—"even forty thousand"—recovering.
Bill W. spoke more clearly and at greater length about his November 1937 meeting with Dr. Bob in Akron in his tribute to Dr. Bob in the special memorial issue of The A.A. Grapevine in January 1951 titled "RHS":
Meanwhile a small group had taken shape in New York. The Akron meeting at T. Henry's home began to have a few Cleveland visitors. At this juncture I spent a week visiting Dr. Bob. We commenced to count noses. Out of hundreds of alcoholics, how many had stuck? How many were sober? And for how long? In that fall of 1937 Bob and I counted forty cases who had significant dry time — maybe sixty years for the whole lot of them! Our eyes glistened. Enough time had elapsed on enough cases to spell out something quite new, perhaps something great indeed. . . . A beacon had been lighted. God had shown alcoholics how it might be passed from hand to hand. Never shall I forget that great and humbling hour of realization, shared with Dr. Bob.
But the new realization faced us with a great problem, a momentous decision. It had taken nearly three years to effect forty recoveries. The United States alone probably had a million alcoholics. How were we to get the story to them?
Here again, Bill declares that he and Dr. Bob "counted forty cases who had significant dry time" and refers to "forty recoveries." And note that Bill credited God with having shown them "how it might be passed from hand to hand."
Bill wrote about his November 1937 meeting with Dr. Bob in Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age:
. . . [T]his trip [in the fall of 1937] gave me a much needed chance to visit Dr. Bob in Akron. It was on a November day in that year [of 1937] when Dr. Bob and I sat in his living room, counting the noses of our recoveries. There had been failures galore, but now we could see some startling successes too. A hard core of very grim, last-gasp cases had by then been sober a couple of years, an unheard-of development. There were twenty or more such people. All told we figured that upwards of forty alcoholics were staying bone dry.
As we carefully rechecked this score, it suddenly burst upon us that a new light was shining into the dark world of the alcoholic. . . . [A] benign chain reaction, one alcoholic carrying the good news to the next, had started outward from Dr. Bob and me. Conceivably it could one day circle the whole world. What a tremendous thing that realization was! At last we were sure. . . . We actually wept for joy, and Bob and Anne and I bowed our heads in silent prayer.
Here again, side by side, we see Bill commenting about the "upwards of forty alcoholics" who "were staying bone dry," while speaking almost in the same breath about how "it could one day circle the whole world."
The author of the A.A. General Service Conference-approved book "Pass It On" also wrote about this November 1937 meeting.
Later in 1937, Bill . . . did visit Bob and Anne in Akron. It was on this visit that the two men conducted a "formal" review of their work of the past two years.
What they came to realize as a result of that review was astounding: Bill may have been stretching things when he declared that at least 20 cases had been sober a couple of years; but by counting everybody who seemed to have found sobriety in New York and Akron, they concluded that more than 40 alcoholics were staying dry as a result of the program!
It really is not very difficult to understand that there wouldn’t be any A.A. at all—let alone an A.A. with 2 million members worldwide—if there hadn’t been a winning effort and miraculous result at the outset. Bill W. and Dr. Bob began to realize the magnitude of what they had been able to accomplish when they "counted noses" in November 1937. Based on their assessment, the cofounders concluded that God had shown them how to pass on the victory technique.
The First 40
So, who were these "40 alcoholics" who "were staying dry as a result of the program," and who contributed to the 75% success rate calculations? Dick B. has done considerable research on, and writing about, the 40 alcoholics about whom we have just been reading. And Dick B. was able to make many of his resources available to, and work very closely with, the man who has done the definitive study on "the first 40"—Richard K. In his massive volume titled New Freedom: Reclaiming Alcoholics Anonymous, Richard K. includes the following appendix: "Appendix 1: 'A New Light: The First Forty: A Chronological Survey of the Early AA Pioneers (December 1934-April 1939).'" This appendix represents a considerable expansion of an earlier version of this article published dated July 9, 2003. We consider Richard K.'s introduction to his "survey" sufficiently informative that we quote it in full here:
About the Survey:
All the facts and statistics included in the following chronological survey have been accumulated from many sources, most which are listed on the cover sheet. These include historical works, membership rosters, personal correspondence letters, audiotaped interviews, and A.A.'s own Conference-approved literature. Wherever there were conflicting data, these instances have been noted in the roster. The foregoing chronological survey is the culmination of these studies.
Note on the "First Forty"
"Successes" and "Failures" that are listed up through "Dr. Howard S." are noted for individuals who were either sober or drinking at the time of Bill's and Bob's headcount in November of 1937. The resulting total for November 1937, as best constructed through all available documented sources, is 40 (27 Akron members and 13 New Yorkers).
Corroborative Evidence:
Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers notes that a headcount was taken in Akron at the beginning of February 1937, producing a total of twelve Akron members sober. By the end of January 1937, there were fifteen established members of the Akron "alcoholic squad." Three of these men (Ernie Galbraith, Paul Stanley and J. D. Holmes) were actively drinking at the time of Dr. Bob's survey. The resulting total of sober Akron members would have been twelve, and thus verifying the accuracy of this survey.
On January 8, 1941, a Greenwich, New York newspaper reported: "In Akron, 31 men have remained dry for from (sic) two-and-one-half years to five years. That is a high proportion of those who have been in from two to five years, because the movement grew slowly in the beginning." The foregoing roster includes exactly 31 Akron men who were sober by May 1938, thus verifying the accuracy of this survey.
[Reference: "Two-Thirds of Alcoholics Anonymous Members Are Cured Or Placed on Road to Complete Recovery." Article written by William L. Ryan for The Greenwich Daily Item, January 8, 1941.]
According to Richard K., then, here are "the first 40" successes as of Bill W. and Dr. Bob's November 1937 "counting the noses of our recoveries":
"The First 40" Successes (+ 1 or 2), up to the "Counting of Noses" in November 1937
According to Richard K. in New Freedom: Reclaiming Alcoholics Anonymous (2005)
[Column on "Story in 'Personal Stories' section of Big Book, 1st Ed., added by Ken B., 7/09]
Date Name Area AA# [Story in BB, 1st Ed.]
12/11/34 Bill Wilson NY 1
1935 Frederick Breithut NY ___
6/10/35 Dr. Bob Smith Akron 2 (Yes, 1st)
6/35 Bill Dotson Akron 3
8/35 Ernie Galbraith Akron 4 (Yes, 11th)
9/35 Hank Parkhurst NY 5 (Yes, 2d)
9/35 Phil Smith Akron 6
10/35 John Henry "Fitz" Mayo NY 7 (Yes, 5th)
1935 Henry P. Akron 8
1935 Silas B. NY 9
1/36 Harold Grisinger Akron 10
2/36 Walter Bray Akron 11 (Yes, 9th)
4/36 Joe Doppler Akron 12 (Yes, 3rd)
4/36 Myron Williams NY 13 (Yes, 24th)
7/36 Paul Stanley Akron 14 (Yes, 18th)
9/36 J. D. Holmes Akron 15
9/36 Harlan Spencer Akron 16
12/36 Bob Oviatt Akron 17 (Yes, 15th)
12/36 Don McLean NY 18
1936 Al Latsch Akron 19
1/37 Frank Curtis Akron 20
1/37 Tom Lucas Akron 21 (Yes, 12th)
2/37 Dick Stanley Akron 22 (Yes, 23rd)
2/37 Bill Ruddell NY 23 (Yes, 6th)
2/37 Bill Van Horn Akron 24 (Yes, 13th)
2/37 Bob Evans Akron 25
2/37 Jane Sturden Akron 26
3/37 Harry Zoellers Akron 27 (Yes, 20th)
3/37 Florence Rankin NY 28 (Yes, 4th)
4/37 Earl Treat Akron 29
4/37 Bill Jones Akron 30
5/37 Lloyd Tate Akron 31 (Yes, 28th)
5/37 Wally Gillam Akron 32 (Yes, 16th)
5/37 Charlie Simonson Akron 33 (Yes, 14th)
7/37 Jim Scott Akron 34 (Yes, 8th)
7/37 Paul Kellogg NY 35
10/37 Jack Williams NY 36
11/37 Ned Poynter NY 37
11/37 Joseph Taylor NY 38
1937 Al Smith Akron 39
1937 Dr. Howard S. Akron 40
Richard K. then presents what he calls a "Post '40' Headcount" to cover those early A.A. pioneers who joined the group after the "counting of noses" in November 1937. He removes the final column he used earlier labeled "AA#." (We have reorganized the names for ease of counting in terms of Richard K.'s three types of "Result": (1) Success; (2) Failure; and (3) Unknown.
"Post '40' Headcount," 1/38-4/39 (when the Big Book was published); Result: "Success"
Date Name Area [Story in BB, 1st Ed.]
1/38 Jim Burwell NY
2/38 Charlie Jones Akron
2/38 Clarence Snyder Akron/Cleveland (Yes, 10th)
2/38 Ray Campbell NY (Yes, 27th)
2/38 Jack Darrow NY
12/36 Norman Hunt NY (Yes, 21st)
5/38 Abby Goldrick Akron
5/38 Bert Taylor NY
6/38 Harry Brick NY (Yes, 7th)
6/6/38 Ralph Furlong NY (Yes, 22nd)
9/38 Archie Trowbridge Akron (Yes, 17th)
9/38 Horace Maher NY (Yes, 25th)
10/38 John Dolan Akron
10/24/38 Ed Andy Akron
12/38 Vaughan Phelps Akron
12/38 Horace Chrystal NY
1938 Bill Hess Akron/Cleveland
1938 Ken A. Akron
1938 Dick R. Chicago
1938 Howard A. NY
1/39 Pat Cooper California (Yes, 29th)
3/1/39 John R. Akron
3/39 Marty Mann NY
4/39 Elgie R. (John's wife) Akron
4/39 Joe Mina NY
4/39 Gordon M. NY/NJ
4/16/39 Rollie Helmsley Akron/Cleveland
Total: 27
So, according to Richard K.'s figures—which we are highly inclined to accept—there were 67/68 "Successes" (40/41 + 27) as of April 1939 when the First Edition of the Big Book was published.
See for Yourself
Below, you will find many sources of evidence you can review for yourself concerning how the early Akron AAs achieved their great successes. In fact, we recently display much of this evidence at “A Nationwide Recovery Conference with Dick B.” held at Mariners Church Community Center in Irvine, California, on May 15-16, 2009. The display was free. It was open to all to view. And it presented many examples of the evidence of early A.A. successes.
One can hardly overstate the importance of learning why pioneer AAs claimed 75% and 93% success rates (in Akron and Cleveland, respectively) among the "seemingly-hopeless," "medically-incurable," "real" alcoholics who went to any length to find or rediscover God, and thus to be healed.
We will, in the following remarks and in the footnotes, add some recent corroborating research and findings about early A.A.'s astonishing success rates. To be sure, some portions of the evidence appear to have more support than others. But, over and over, many AAs, researchers, writers, and historians have declared that 50% of the early AAs they specifically describe and identify never drank again. Some have questioned whether the next 25% relapsed and really returned to remain sober; but that is the figure upon which A.A. and many others have settled.
We repeat. The evidence shows that 40 “real” or “true” alcoholics (as Bill chose to characterize them) in the early Akron A.A. Fellowship—those who had really tried and put forth every effort to follow directions—had each stayed "dry" for a year or more. And as to success rates, there is an interesting and very specific report, dated December 1940, on a more-than-75% success rate among the Philadelphia A.A. group founded in February 1940, only a few months after the Big Book was published.
An even greater 93% success rate was reported in Cleveland A.A., whose first group was founded in May 1939, shortly after the Big Book was published. Two years later, Cleveland founder Clarence H. Snyder made a survey of all the members in Cleveland. Snyder “concluded that, by keeping most of the ‘old program,’ including the Four Absolutes and the Bible, ninety-three percent of those surveyed had maintained uninterrupted sobriety.” These were the Cleveland groups that grew from one to thirty in a year.
Here Are the Evidentiary Sources for Your Own Review and Conclusions
As A.A.’s venerable Clarence Snyder was fond of saying: “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for just about anything.” Nothing in this Manual should be taken to mean that a Christian cannot get sober in today's A.A. I (Dick B.) am a Christian, and I got sober in today's A.A. (in 1986, and with no relapses). Nothing in this Manual should be understood as saying that you can’t quit drinking unless you do what the early Akron AAs did. I had never heard about, nor had I even considered, the roles played by God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible in early A.A. until a fellow-believer name John (now dead of alcoholism) asked me shortly before A.A.'s International Convention in Seattle in 1990 if I knew that A.A. had come from the Bible. And I was ignorant of what the early AAs had actually done to get well. I got sober without that knowledge. Immediately. Nothing in this Manual should be understood as saying that a person must have an A.A. Christian Fellowship like the early AAs did. I didn’t. In fact, I got sober in present-day A.A. even when my sponsor and grand-sponsor were objecting to my studying of the Bible.
This chapter does tell you what happened to the pioneers who developed our original program between 1935 and 1938. What happened thereafter is not the subject of this discussion. Here are some materials which you can study for yourself to find out if the success rate statements are accurate:
• Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, pages 11, 76, 144, 309-10;
• The Language of the Heart, pages 10, 142, 359;
• Pass It On, pages 177-78;
• Lois Remembers, page 107;
• Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., page xx;
• RHS: Co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous our beloved DR. BOB (1951), page 8;
• Alcohol, Science and Society: Twenty-nine Lectures with Discussions as Given at the Yale Summer School of Alcohol Studies (1945), Bill’s remarks at pages 462, 466;
• Mitchell K., How It Worked (quoting Bill’s New York Rockefeller Dinner Talk), page 167.
Add to the foregoing research and writing of others, the written evidence of names, addresses, and even sobriety dates of early pioneers in Akron and Cleveland—evidence that we have displayed at our recent conference in the Southern California area:
• Photocopies of several of the original rosters of the early A.A. pioneers of Akron and Cleveland—names, addresses, phones, sobriety.
• Photocopies of address books, prepared for all members by several different members, and listing the name, phone number, and street address of the members of the pioneer A.A. Christian Fellowship.
• Photocopies of address lists kept by the early Cleveland groups.
Why reiterate here the seemingly-conclusive evidence of early successes? First, because those early success rates stand in stark contrast to the alleged-low success rates today which range from one percent (1%) to seven percent (7%). Second, because they demonstrate what the pioneers accomplished when they did what they did. Third, because that’s “the rest of the story.” The A.A. story is not just an accounting of present-day diversity, idolatry, strange “higher powers,” and low success rates. “The rest of the story” has to do with the greatness—the power of God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible—that so clearly figured in the success picture of the pioneers.
Our own personal observations have never persuaded us to stop looking for, finding, believing, and quoting the 75% and 93% success rates. The reasons are based on the following additional facts:
1. You can, as we have, look at the pictures on the walls of Dr. Bob’s Home at 855 Ardmore Avenue in Akron; and there you will see the faces and the names of the very pioneers whose names you can also find in the many extant pioneer rosters of which we have copies.
2. We saw and still have a copy of Anne Smith’s address book with the names and addresses of some of these same people.
3. We took note of the fact that, in A.A.'s earliest days—although the success rate was astonishingly high (75% in Akron)—the actual number of people involved was relatively small (e.g., the "first 40" pioneers). And that most, if not all, of these people knew each other, and knew the sobriety dates, relapse occurrences, and length of sobriety of their friends. For example, Dorothy Snyder, wife of A.A. pioneer Clarence Snyder, said:
“Another thing that they did moved me so,” said Dorothy. “They handed out little address books with everybody’s name in it. Very few people, of course, had phones then. We were all too poor. But the ones who had phone numbers, there they were. And when they said, ‘Drop in on us—anytime,’ they meant it. I knew they did.”
4. The authors of this essay have seen and reviewed several of the rosters of those early members. Dick B. has sent most of the rosters of which he had copies to the Griffith Library in East Dorset, Vermont. But he did have the opportunity to go over at least one of them in person with Dr. Bob’s daughter, Sue Smith Windows—who had been present at the early meetings and in the Smith home in Akron. She examined the list and corrected the spelling of two or three of the names, but otherwise left the list as it was.
5. We even came across a roster of over 200 of the first AAs, and it contained similar data.
6. When we interviewed Grace Snyder (Clarence Snyder’s third wife) at her home in Jacksonville Beach, Florida—over the period of a week—Grace provided us with a list of the early pioneers that her husband Clarence had specifically named for her. And practically the same pioneers as those on the other rosters and lists were named.
7. In summary, we have found little to cause us to doubt the statements that have been quoted above in this chapter concerning those in A.A. who were known to have been cured and to have remained sober. For example, the first three AAs—Wilson, Smith, and Dotson—never drank again. Clarence Snyder never drank again. They all said so. And there are a host of others who were well known to the Akron crowd—just as John Henry Fitzhugh Mayo was known to the New York crowd. These were among the numbered, successful 50% who never drank again.
Points to Remember
• Early AAs were cured of alcoholism and said so.
• 50% of the Akron fellowship members maintained continuous sobriety.
• 25% relapsed, but returned and recovered.
• A.A.'s founders (Bill W. and Dr. Bob), as well as many early A.A. pioneers, specifically stated they were cured.
• Bill W. and Dr. Bob "counted noses" of the "last gasp” cases who were members in November 1937. ". . . Bob and I counted forty cases who had significant dry time - maybe sixty years for the whole lot of them."
• Early AAs knew one another well. They had address books with names, addresses, and often phone numbers. They visited each other. They also kept rosters in which they tracked who had succeeded and who had failed.
• There were failures galore; but the 75% who succeeded were those who had really tried, gone to any length to get well, and thoroughly followed the path to recovery that existed.
• Across America, there were dozens and dozens of newspaper and magazine articles that followed the publication of the Big Book in which members stated they had been cured—by the power of God!
:idea:
The Verification of Early A.A.'s Astonishing Successes
© 2009 Dick B. All rights reserved
[Extract from Chapter 10 of The Dick B. Christian Recovery Manual—to be released soon]
The Starting Point
Early A.A.—prior to the publication of the First Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (the "Big Book") in April 1939—claimed a 75% success rate among "seemingly-hopeless," "medically-incurable," "real" alcoholics who thoroughly followed the program A.A. cofounders Bill W. and Dr. Bob began developing and putting into practice during the summer of 1935.
Early A.A.'s 75% Success Rate
Let us begin our discussion with the following statement from the "Foreword to Second Edition" found in "the Fourth Edition of the Big Book, the Basic Text for Alcoholics Anonymous":
Of alcoholics who came to A.A. and really tried, 50% got sober at once and remained that way; 25% sobered up after some relapses, and among the remainder, those who stayed on with A.A. showed improvement.
The statement above, found in A.A. General Service Conference-approved literature, echoes A.A. cofounder Bill Wilson's remarks at the "Rockefeller Dinner" on February 8, 1940:
To continue with what had happened out in Akron. By the time the book was published last April [of 1939] there were about one hundred of us, the majority of them in the West. Although we have no exact figures, in counting heads recently, we think it fair to state that of all the people who have been seriously interested in this thing since the beginning, one-half have had no relapse at all. About 25% are having some trouble, or have had some trouble, but in our judgment will recover. The other 25% we do not know about.
In a letter written on Dr. Bob's behalf to the Guggenheim Foundation in hopes of gaining a fellowship for Dr. Bob, Bill W. had written:
"At Akron, Ohio, there is a physician, Dr. Robert H. Smith, who has been responsible during the past four years for the recovery of at least 100 chronic alcoholics of types hitherto regarded by the medical profession as hopeless . . .
"For more than four years, without charge to sufferers, without fanfare and almost without funds, Dr. Smith has carried on work among alcoholics in the Akron-Cleveland area. In this human laboratory, he has proved that any alcoholic, not too mentally defective, can recover if he so desires. The possible recovery among such cases has suddenly been lifted from almost nil to at least 50 percent, which, quite aside from its social implications, is a medical result of the first magnitude. Though, as a means of our recovery, we all engage in the work, Dr. Smith has had more experience and has obtained better results than anyone else."
After having made an extensive investigation of A.A., Jack Alexander wrote the following in his famous March 1, 1941, article in the Saturday Evening Post titled "Alcoholics Anonymous":
One-hundred-percent effectiveness with non-psychotic drinkers who sincerely want to quit is claimed by the workers of Alcoholics Anonymous. The program will not work, they add, with those who only "want to want to quit," or who want to quit because they are afraid of losing their families or their jobs. The effective desire, they state, must be based upon enlightened self-interest; the applicant must want to get away from liquor to head off incarceration or premature death. He must be fed up with the stark social loneliness, which engulfs the uncontrolled drinker, and he must want to put some order into his bungled life.
As it is impossible to disqualify all borderline applicants, the working percentage of recovery falls below the 100-percent mark. According to A.A. estimation, 50 per cent of the alcoholics taken in hand recover almost immediately; 25 per cent get well after suffering a relapse or two, and the rest remain doubtful. This rate of success is exceptionally high. Statistics on traditional medical and religious cures are lacking, but it has been informally estimated that they are no more than two or three per cent effective on run-of-the-mine cases.
Writing to a member trying to get A.A. started in a new city, Bill Wilson said:
I explain this at some length because I want you to be successful with yourself and the people with whom you work. We used to pussyfoot on this spiritual business a great deal more out here [in New York City] and the result was bad, for our record falls quite a lot short of the performance of Akron and Cleveland, where there are now about 350 alcoholics, many of them sober 2 or 3 years, with less than 20% ever having had any relapse.”
In 1958, Bill Wilson addressed the New York City Medical Society on Alcoholism. The subject was "Alcoholics Anonymous—Beginnings and Growth." He told the physicians:
As we gained size, we also gained in effectiveness. The recovery rate went way up. Of all those who really tried A.A., a large percent made it at once, others finally made it; and still others, if they stayed with us, were definitely improved. Our high recovery rate has since held, even with those who first wrote their stories in the original edition of "Alcoholics Anonymous." In fact, 75 per cent of these finally achieved sobriety. Only 25 per cent died or went mad. Most of those still alive have now been sober for an average of twenty years.
Joe Mc Q. (now deceased) and Charlie P. are two venerable Arkansas AAs who conducted A.A. Big Book Seminars around the world. And they often made these telling observations:
If you look at the top of page xx in the Big Book, you’ll see just how effective the book was when the fellowship’s recovery program and the recovery program described in the book were the same. Perhaps xx explains that AA grew by leaps and bounds. . . . Half of all the alcoholics who came to AA and seriously and sincerely tried to recover got sober immediately and stayed that way. Another 25 per cent sobered up a little more slowly. So in the beginning, when the fellowship program and the program of the Big Book were the same, it is estimated that 75% of the people who used the Twelve Step program and really tried to recover from the disease of alcoholism actually did. We wonder what the percentage is today. We doubt seriously if it’s 50 percent, let alone 75 per cent. . . . The only thing that has really changed is the fellowship itself.
A number of other writers on A.A. history have also concluded that these success rate figures are reliable. Now, how about the actual numbers of people upon which these rates are based?
Some Early Numbers
Addressing his lecture to the distinguished gathering at the Yale School of Alcohol Studies in 1945, Bill Wilson introduced the following statistics:
Such has been the alcoholic’s dilemma time out of mind, and it is altogether probable that even of those alcoholics who did not wish to go on drinking, not more than 5 out of 100 have ever been able to stop, before A.A.
And little by little we began to grow so that there were 5 of us at the end of that first year; at the end of the second year, 15; at the end of the third year, 40; and at the end of the fourth year, 100.
One of the important factors in getting a handle on early A.A.'s successes and success rates is to realize that the number of people actively involved in the earliest days was relatively small. Another important factor is that most of the pioneer AAs knew (or got to know) each other well.
A comment in the A.A. General Service Conference-approved book, DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, offers some insight on these points:
When Bill left Akron in late August 1935, there were four members—possibly five counting Phil, who might have been in the process of drying out.
From that fall to spring, Bill helped Hank P. and Fitz M., among others, get sober in New York. . . .
. . . .
In February 1937, another count was taken, and there were seven additional members in Akron, for a total of 12. Half of these had or would have some sort of slip, and at least one would never be really successful in the A.A. program thereafter. For most, however, the slip was the convincer. . . .
There were dozens of others who were exposed to the program up to February 1937. Some were successful for a time, then drifted away. Some came back. Others died. Some, like "Lil," may have found another way.
"Counting the Noses of Our Recoveries" in November 1937
DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers also comments on the November 1937 meeting between Bill W. and Dr. Bob which led to the decision that a book about their cure for alcoholism would be needed.
In November of that year [i.e., 1937], Bill Wilson went on a business trip that enabled him to make a stopover in Akron. . . .
Bill's writings record the day he sat in the living room with Doc, counting recoveries. "A hard core of very grim, last-gasp cases had by then been sober a couple of years," he said. "All told, we figured that upwards of 40 alcoholics were staying bone dry.
. . .
Up to then, prospects had come to the founders from other cities. Now, the question was whether every alcoholic had to come to Akron or New York to get sober. Was it possible to reach distant alcoholics? Was it possible for the Fellowship to grow "rapidly and soundly"?
This was when Bill began to think . . . of writing a book of experiences that would carry the message of recovery to other cities and other countries.
Let us now look at this vitally-significant November 1937 meeting in more detail.
In an October 1945 article in the A.A. Grapevine titled "The Book Is Born," Bill referred to his meeting with Dr. Bob in Akron in November 1937 as follows:
By the fall of 1937 we could count what looked like forty recovered members. One of us had been sober three years, another two and a half, and a fair number had a year or more behind them. As all of us had been hopeless cases, this amount of time elapsed began to be significant. The realization that we had "found something" began to take hold of us. No longer were we a dubious experiment. Alcoholics could stay sober. Great numbers, perhaps! While some of us had always clung to this possibility, the dream now had real substance. If forty alcoholics could recover, why not four hundred, four thousand — even forty thousand?
In the quote above, Bill spoke of having counted "what looked like forty recovered members." He also spoke about much larger numbers of alcoholics—"even forty thousand"—recovering.
Bill W. spoke more clearly and at greater length about his November 1937 meeting with Dr. Bob in Akron in his tribute to Dr. Bob in the special memorial issue of The A.A. Grapevine in January 1951 titled "RHS":
Meanwhile a small group had taken shape in New York. The Akron meeting at T. Henry's home began to have a few Cleveland visitors. At this juncture I spent a week visiting Dr. Bob. We commenced to count noses. Out of hundreds of alcoholics, how many had stuck? How many were sober? And for how long? In that fall of 1937 Bob and I counted forty cases who had significant dry time — maybe sixty years for the whole lot of them! Our eyes glistened. Enough time had elapsed on enough cases to spell out something quite new, perhaps something great indeed. . . . A beacon had been lighted. God had shown alcoholics how it might be passed from hand to hand. Never shall I forget that great and humbling hour of realization, shared with Dr. Bob.
But the new realization faced us with a great problem, a momentous decision. It had taken nearly three years to effect forty recoveries. The United States alone probably had a million alcoholics. How were we to get the story to them?
Here again, Bill declares that he and Dr. Bob "counted forty cases who had significant dry time" and refers to "forty recoveries." And note that Bill credited God with having shown them "how it might be passed from hand to hand."
Bill wrote about his November 1937 meeting with Dr. Bob in Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age:
. . . [T]his trip [in the fall of 1937] gave me a much needed chance to visit Dr. Bob in Akron. It was on a November day in that year [of 1937] when Dr. Bob and I sat in his living room, counting the noses of our recoveries. There had been failures galore, but now we could see some startling successes too. A hard core of very grim, last-gasp cases had by then been sober a couple of years, an unheard-of development. There were twenty or more such people. All told we figured that upwards of forty alcoholics were staying bone dry.
As we carefully rechecked this score, it suddenly burst upon us that a new light was shining into the dark world of the alcoholic. . . . [A] benign chain reaction, one alcoholic carrying the good news to the next, had started outward from Dr. Bob and me. Conceivably it could one day circle the whole world. What a tremendous thing that realization was! At last we were sure. . . . We actually wept for joy, and Bob and Anne and I bowed our heads in silent prayer.
Here again, side by side, we see Bill commenting about the "upwards of forty alcoholics" who "were staying bone dry," while speaking almost in the same breath about how "it could one day circle the whole world."
The author of the A.A. General Service Conference-approved book "Pass It On" also wrote about this November 1937 meeting.
Later in 1937, Bill . . . did visit Bob and Anne in Akron. It was on this visit that the two men conducted a "formal" review of their work of the past two years.
What they came to realize as a result of that review was astounding: Bill may have been stretching things when he declared that at least 20 cases had been sober a couple of years; but by counting everybody who seemed to have found sobriety in New York and Akron, they concluded that more than 40 alcoholics were staying dry as a result of the program!
It really is not very difficult to understand that there wouldn’t be any A.A. at all—let alone an A.A. with 2 million members worldwide—if there hadn’t been a winning effort and miraculous result at the outset. Bill W. and Dr. Bob began to realize the magnitude of what they had been able to accomplish when they "counted noses" in November 1937. Based on their assessment, the cofounders concluded that God had shown them how to pass on the victory technique.
The First 40
So, who were these "40 alcoholics" who "were staying dry as a result of the program," and who contributed to the 75% success rate calculations? Dick B. has done considerable research on, and writing about, the 40 alcoholics about whom we have just been reading. And Dick B. was able to make many of his resources available to, and work very closely with, the man who has done the definitive study on "the first 40"—Richard K. In his massive volume titled New Freedom: Reclaiming Alcoholics Anonymous, Richard K. includes the following appendix: "Appendix 1: 'A New Light: The First Forty: A Chronological Survey of the Early AA Pioneers (December 1934-April 1939).'" This appendix represents a considerable expansion of an earlier version of this article published dated July 9, 2003. We consider Richard K.'s introduction to his "survey" sufficiently informative that we quote it in full here:
About the Survey:
All the facts and statistics included in the following chronological survey have been accumulated from many sources, most which are listed on the cover sheet. These include historical works, membership rosters, personal correspondence letters, audiotaped interviews, and A.A.'s own Conference-approved literature. Wherever there were conflicting data, these instances have been noted in the roster. The foregoing chronological survey is the culmination of these studies.
Note on the "First Forty"
"Successes" and "Failures" that are listed up through "Dr. Howard S." are noted for individuals who were either sober or drinking at the time of Bill's and Bob's headcount in November of 1937. The resulting total for November 1937, as best constructed through all available documented sources, is 40 (27 Akron members and 13 New Yorkers).
Corroborative Evidence:
Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers notes that a headcount was taken in Akron at the beginning of February 1937, producing a total of twelve Akron members sober. By the end of January 1937, there were fifteen established members of the Akron "alcoholic squad." Three of these men (Ernie Galbraith, Paul Stanley and J. D. Holmes) were actively drinking at the time of Dr. Bob's survey. The resulting total of sober Akron members would have been twelve, and thus verifying the accuracy of this survey.
On January 8, 1941, a Greenwich, New York newspaper reported: "In Akron, 31 men have remained dry for from (sic) two-and-one-half years to five years. That is a high proportion of those who have been in from two to five years, because the movement grew slowly in the beginning." The foregoing roster includes exactly 31 Akron men who were sober by May 1938, thus verifying the accuracy of this survey.
[Reference: "Two-Thirds of Alcoholics Anonymous Members Are Cured Or Placed on Road to Complete Recovery." Article written by William L. Ryan for The Greenwich Daily Item, January 8, 1941.]
According to Richard K., then, here are "the first 40" successes as of Bill W. and Dr. Bob's November 1937 "counting the noses of our recoveries":
"The First 40" Successes (+ 1 or 2), up to the "Counting of Noses" in November 1937
According to Richard K. in New Freedom: Reclaiming Alcoholics Anonymous (2005)
[Column on "Story in 'Personal Stories' section of Big Book, 1st Ed., added by Ken B., 7/09]
Date Name Area AA# [Story in BB, 1st Ed.]
12/11/34 Bill Wilson NY 1
1935 Frederick Breithut NY ___
6/10/35 Dr. Bob Smith Akron 2 (Yes, 1st)
6/35 Bill Dotson Akron 3
8/35 Ernie Galbraith Akron 4 (Yes, 11th)
9/35 Hank Parkhurst NY 5 (Yes, 2d)
9/35 Phil Smith Akron 6
10/35 John Henry "Fitz" Mayo NY 7 (Yes, 5th)
1935 Henry P. Akron 8
1935 Silas B. NY 9
1/36 Harold Grisinger Akron 10
2/36 Walter Bray Akron 11 (Yes, 9th)
4/36 Joe Doppler Akron 12 (Yes, 3rd)
4/36 Myron Williams NY 13 (Yes, 24th)
7/36 Paul Stanley Akron 14 (Yes, 18th)
9/36 J. D. Holmes Akron 15
9/36 Harlan Spencer Akron 16
12/36 Bob Oviatt Akron 17 (Yes, 15th)
12/36 Don McLean NY 18
1936 Al Latsch Akron 19
1/37 Frank Curtis Akron 20
1/37 Tom Lucas Akron 21 (Yes, 12th)
2/37 Dick Stanley Akron 22 (Yes, 23rd)
2/37 Bill Ruddell NY 23 (Yes, 6th)
2/37 Bill Van Horn Akron 24 (Yes, 13th)
2/37 Bob Evans Akron 25
2/37 Jane Sturden Akron 26
3/37 Harry Zoellers Akron 27 (Yes, 20th)
3/37 Florence Rankin NY 28 (Yes, 4th)
4/37 Earl Treat Akron 29
4/37 Bill Jones Akron 30
5/37 Lloyd Tate Akron 31 (Yes, 28th)
5/37 Wally Gillam Akron 32 (Yes, 16th)
5/37 Charlie Simonson Akron 33 (Yes, 14th)
7/37 Jim Scott Akron 34 (Yes, 8th)
7/37 Paul Kellogg NY 35
10/37 Jack Williams NY 36
11/37 Ned Poynter NY 37
11/37 Joseph Taylor NY 38
1937 Al Smith Akron 39
1937 Dr. Howard S. Akron 40
Richard K. then presents what he calls a "Post '40' Headcount" to cover those early A.A. pioneers who joined the group after the "counting of noses" in November 1937. He removes the final column he used earlier labeled "AA#." (We have reorganized the names for ease of counting in terms of Richard K.'s three types of "Result": (1) Success; (2) Failure; and (3) Unknown.
"Post '40' Headcount," 1/38-4/39 (when the Big Book was published); Result: "Success"
Date Name Area [Story in BB, 1st Ed.]
1/38 Jim Burwell NY
2/38 Charlie Jones Akron
2/38 Clarence Snyder Akron/Cleveland (Yes, 10th)
2/38 Ray Campbell NY (Yes, 27th)
2/38 Jack Darrow NY
12/36 Norman Hunt NY (Yes, 21st)
5/38 Abby Goldrick Akron
5/38 Bert Taylor NY
6/38 Harry Brick NY (Yes, 7th)
6/6/38 Ralph Furlong NY (Yes, 22nd)
9/38 Archie Trowbridge Akron (Yes, 17th)
9/38 Horace Maher NY (Yes, 25th)
10/38 John Dolan Akron
10/24/38 Ed Andy Akron
12/38 Vaughan Phelps Akron
12/38 Horace Chrystal NY
1938 Bill Hess Akron/Cleveland
1938 Ken A. Akron
1938 Dick R. Chicago
1938 Howard A. NY
1/39 Pat Cooper California (Yes, 29th)
3/1/39 John R. Akron
3/39 Marty Mann NY
4/39 Elgie R. (John's wife) Akron
4/39 Joe Mina NY
4/39 Gordon M. NY/NJ
4/16/39 Rollie Helmsley Akron/Cleveland
Total: 27
So, according to Richard K.'s figures—which we are highly inclined to accept—there were 67/68 "Successes" (40/41 + 27) as of April 1939 when the First Edition of the Big Book was published.
See for Yourself
Below, you will find many sources of evidence you can review for yourself concerning how the early Akron AAs achieved their great successes. In fact, we recently display much of this evidence at “A Nationwide Recovery Conference with Dick B.” held at Mariners Church Community Center in Irvine, California, on May 15-16, 2009. The display was free. It was open to all to view. And it presented many examples of the evidence of early A.A. successes.
One can hardly overstate the importance of learning why pioneer AAs claimed 75% and 93% success rates (in Akron and Cleveland, respectively) among the "seemingly-hopeless," "medically-incurable," "real" alcoholics who went to any length to find or rediscover God, and thus to be healed.
We will, in the following remarks and in the footnotes, add some recent corroborating research and findings about early A.A.'s astonishing success rates. To be sure, some portions of the evidence appear to have more support than others. But, over and over, many AAs, researchers, writers, and historians have declared that 50% of the early AAs they specifically describe and identify never drank again. Some have questioned whether the next 25% relapsed and really returned to remain sober; but that is the figure upon which A.A. and many others have settled.
We repeat. The evidence shows that 40 “real” or “true” alcoholics (as Bill chose to characterize them) in the early Akron A.A. Fellowship—those who had really tried and put forth every effort to follow directions—had each stayed "dry" for a year or more. And as to success rates, there is an interesting and very specific report, dated December 1940, on a more-than-75% success rate among the Philadelphia A.A. group founded in February 1940, only a few months after the Big Book was published.
An even greater 93% success rate was reported in Cleveland A.A., whose first group was founded in May 1939, shortly after the Big Book was published. Two years later, Cleveland founder Clarence H. Snyder made a survey of all the members in Cleveland. Snyder “concluded that, by keeping most of the ‘old program,’ including the Four Absolutes and the Bible, ninety-three percent of those surveyed had maintained uninterrupted sobriety.” These were the Cleveland groups that grew from one to thirty in a year.
Here Are the Evidentiary Sources for Your Own Review and Conclusions
As A.A.’s venerable Clarence Snyder was fond of saying: “If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for just about anything.” Nothing in this Manual should be taken to mean that a Christian cannot get sober in today's A.A. I (Dick B.) am a Christian, and I got sober in today's A.A. (in 1986, and with no relapses). Nothing in this Manual should be understood as saying that you can’t quit drinking unless you do what the early Akron AAs did. I had never heard about, nor had I even considered, the roles played by God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible in early A.A. until a fellow-believer name John (now dead of alcoholism) asked me shortly before A.A.'s International Convention in Seattle in 1990 if I knew that A.A. had come from the Bible. And I was ignorant of what the early AAs had actually done to get well. I got sober without that knowledge. Immediately. Nothing in this Manual should be understood as saying that a person must have an A.A. Christian Fellowship like the early AAs did. I didn’t. In fact, I got sober in present-day A.A. even when my sponsor and grand-sponsor were objecting to my studying of the Bible.
This chapter does tell you what happened to the pioneers who developed our original program between 1935 and 1938. What happened thereafter is not the subject of this discussion. Here are some materials which you can study for yourself to find out if the success rate statements are accurate:
• Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, pages 11, 76, 144, 309-10;
• The Language of the Heart, pages 10, 142, 359;
• Pass It On, pages 177-78;
• Lois Remembers, page 107;
• Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., page xx;
• RHS: Co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous our beloved DR. BOB (1951), page 8;
• Alcohol, Science and Society: Twenty-nine Lectures with Discussions as Given at the Yale Summer School of Alcohol Studies (1945), Bill’s remarks at pages 462, 466;
• Mitchell K., How It Worked (quoting Bill’s New York Rockefeller Dinner Talk), page 167.
Add to the foregoing research and writing of others, the written evidence of names, addresses, and even sobriety dates of early pioneers in Akron and Cleveland—evidence that we have displayed at our recent conference in the Southern California area:
• Photocopies of several of the original rosters of the early A.A. pioneers of Akron and Cleveland—names, addresses, phones, sobriety.
• Photocopies of address books, prepared for all members by several different members, and listing the name, phone number, and street address of the members of the pioneer A.A. Christian Fellowship.
• Photocopies of address lists kept by the early Cleveland groups.
Why reiterate here the seemingly-conclusive evidence of early successes? First, because those early success rates stand in stark contrast to the alleged-low success rates today which range from one percent (1%) to seven percent (7%). Second, because they demonstrate what the pioneers accomplished when they did what they did. Third, because that’s “the rest of the story.” The A.A. story is not just an accounting of present-day diversity, idolatry, strange “higher powers,” and low success rates. “The rest of the story” has to do with the greatness—the power of God, His Son Jesus Christ, and the Bible—that so clearly figured in the success picture of the pioneers.
Our own personal observations have never persuaded us to stop looking for, finding, believing, and quoting the 75% and 93% success rates. The reasons are based on the following additional facts:
1. You can, as we have, look at the pictures on the walls of Dr. Bob’s Home at 855 Ardmore Avenue in Akron; and there you will see the faces and the names of the very pioneers whose names you can also find in the many extant pioneer rosters of which we have copies.
2. We saw and still have a copy of Anne Smith’s address book with the names and addresses of some of these same people.
3. We took note of the fact that, in A.A.'s earliest days—although the success rate was astonishingly high (75% in Akron)—the actual number of people involved was relatively small (e.g., the "first 40" pioneers). And that most, if not all, of these people knew each other, and knew the sobriety dates, relapse occurrences, and length of sobriety of their friends. For example, Dorothy Snyder, wife of A.A. pioneer Clarence Snyder, said:
“Another thing that they did moved me so,” said Dorothy. “They handed out little address books with everybody’s name in it. Very few people, of course, had phones then. We were all too poor. But the ones who had phone numbers, there they were. And when they said, ‘Drop in on us—anytime,’ they meant it. I knew they did.”
4. The authors of this essay have seen and reviewed several of the rosters of those early members. Dick B. has sent most of the rosters of which he had copies to the Griffith Library in East Dorset, Vermont. But he did have the opportunity to go over at least one of them in person with Dr. Bob’s daughter, Sue Smith Windows—who had been present at the early meetings and in the Smith home in Akron. She examined the list and corrected the spelling of two or three of the names, but otherwise left the list as it was.
5. We even came across a roster of over 200 of the first AAs, and it contained similar data.
6. When we interviewed Grace Snyder (Clarence Snyder’s third wife) at her home in Jacksonville Beach, Florida—over the period of a week—Grace provided us with a list of the early pioneers that her husband Clarence had specifically named for her. And practically the same pioneers as those on the other rosters and lists were named.
7. In summary, we have found little to cause us to doubt the statements that have been quoted above in this chapter concerning those in A.A. who were known to have been cured and to have remained sober. For example, the first three AAs—Wilson, Smith, and Dotson—never drank again. Clarence Snyder never drank again. They all said so. And there are a host of others who were well known to the Akron crowd—just as John Henry Fitzhugh Mayo was known to the New York crowd. These were among the numbered, successful 50% who never drank again.
Points to Remember
• Early AAs were cured of alcoholism and said so.
• 50% of the Akron fellowship members maintained continuous sobriety.
• 25% relapsed, but returned and recovered.
• A.A.'s founders (Bill W. and Dr. Bob), as well as many early A.A. pioneers, specifically stated they were cured.
• Bill W. and Dr. Bob "counted noses" of the "last gasp” cases who were members in November 1937. ". . . Bob and I counted forty cases who had significant dry time - maybe sixty years for the whole lot of them."
• Early AAs knew one another well. They had address books with names, addresses, and often phone numbers. They visited each other. They also kept rosters in which they tracked who had succeeded and who had failed.
• There were failures galore; but the 75% who succeeded were those who had really tried, gone to any length to get well, and thoroughly followed the path to recovery that existed.
• Across America, there were dozens and dozens of newspaper and magazine articles that followed the publication of the Big Book in which members stated they had been cured—by the power of God!
:idea: