Dick B.’s
A.A. History Books Tops in Number on the List Prepared by Buddy T. of About.com
By Dick B.
Buddy T. and his About.com website keep a regular chronicle
of subjects about Alcoholics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous History. His
list reviews nine of the principal books about Alcoholics Anonymous History.
And, of these nine, the following Dick B. A. A. history books constitute four
of the nine—a unique and important tribute to Dick’s scholarly work.
My book reporting and documenting the story of A.A’s
beginnings in Akron, emerging in 1931. Recounting what early AAs did in their
meetings, homes, and hospital visits; what they read; and how their ideas
developed from the Bible, the Oxford Group, and Christian literature.
The unique authoritative and complete study of the Oxford
Group (also known later as Moral Re-Armament) and the remarkable parallels of
the Oxford Group principles, practices, and contributions with Bill Wilson’s
1939 “new version” of the A.A. program as drawn largely from "A First
Century Christian Fellowship" (also known as The Oxford Group) with which A.A.
cofounders Bill W. and Dr. Bob were associated between 1931 and 1939.
Dr. Bob's wife, Anne Ripley Smith, kept a journal in the
1930's from which she shared with early AAs and their families ideas from the
Bible and the Oxford Group. This sharing was done every morning in a Quiet Time
that was held at the Smith home in Akron. Anne was known as the “Mother of A.A.”
Her ideas substantially influenced
A.A.'s program.
That Amazing Grace: The
Role of Clarence & Grace S. in Alcoholics Anonymous, by Dick B.
Grace, the wife of A.A. Old-timer and founder of the first
Cleveland, Ohio A.A. group, tells in her own words how her husband Clarence
became a sponsee of A.A. cofounder Dr. Bob, spun off Akron A.A. into the
Cleveland Group—which became the fastest growing early A.A. area, with groups
increasing from one to thirty in a year, and with a documented 93% success
rate.
Grace also tells how she and Clarence conducted retreats for
AAs and their families for years.
No comments:
Post a Comment