The A.A. Archives and History Materials and A. A. History Conference in Portland, Maine Which You May Wish to Attend in the Upcoming September, 2013 Worldwide Events
by Dick B.
Copyright 2013 Anonymous. All rights reserved
AA archives have generally grown and produced valuable fruit when they contained donated, collected materials; were gathered by persistent, roving visitors; produced by widely travelingj interviewers, and viewed by some frequenters of libraries and records that have not been obscured behind locked glass cases or limited in understanding by lack of informed docents.
Through the years, the "archives" and "history" colections have often contained more subjective opinions and "wisdom of the rooms" than they have the meat and potatoes required for a sustained diet of comprehensive, accurate, widely representative research and writing. They have also closed doors to a host of diligent newcomer-oriented folks who want to teach history instead of presenting opinions and criticisms or promulgating myths.
Examples? The long submerged interview of Dr. Bob for the "Faith" publication and written by Defoe. The long reported-for-lost article in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese newspaper "The Tiding"--written when Bill Wilson and Bob were on the stage together in 1948 at the Shrine auditorium in Los Angeles. The five or six manuscript fragments written by Bill Wilson and lodged for years at Stepping Stones until I found and began making them available to the fellowship through my writings. The host of books, sermons, pamphlets and papers of Rev. Sam Shoemaker which were located at the Episcopal Church Archives in Texas, purloined or hidden in part, and ultimately rescued, in part, by us and placed in the Shoemaker Room at Calvary Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh. The personal stories of the pioneers in the Big Book First Edition (which were systematically removed one-by-one until recently republished in full by Dover Publications, Inc. reprint--with a 27 page introduction by Dick B.) The journal kept and shared with Akron AAs by Anne Smith (Dr. Bob's wife) each morning at the Smith Home. The books that Dr. Bob read and circulated among the pioneers - which were housed in the attic of Sue Smith Windows's home in Akron and in Robert R. Smith's home in Nocona, Texas. The whole historical new era of A.A. history found in recent research investions throughout Vermont and in Cleveland.The hundreds of Oxford Group books, articles, magazines, and papers that were turned over to me and donated to Wilson House in East Dorset, Vermont, where they were catalogued and made available for view. The biographical material about Dr. William D. Silkworth--only recently published by Hazelden and then withdrawn from distribution.
And there are hunrdreds, if not thousands, more.
If you would like to see archives, history, and presentations you probably have never viewed or heard about before, you may want to attend the worldwide A.A. History Conference scheduled for Portland, Maine in September, 2013. For information, contact Dick B. dickb@dickb.com, 808 874 4876
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