MULTILITH 1938/1939 - BIG BOOK
A l'avant-plan, copie n°2 (sur 100) du "multilith" (aussi appelé "original manuscript"), appartenant à Jim Burwell ("The atheist", dans le Gros Livre)
Imprécision quant à la date du tirage (décembre 1938 selon Jim Burwell - janvier 1939 selon Bill W.)
Original Manuscript , Foreword : “To show alcoholics PRECISELY HOW THEY CAN RECOVER …”
Big Book , 1 st edition, 1 st printing: “To show alcoholics PRECISELY HOW WE HAVE RECOVERED…”
Original Manuscript , There is a Solution : “If you are seriously alcoholic, we believe you have no middle-of-the-road solution. You are in a position where life is becoming impossible, and if you have passed into the region from which there is no return through human aid, you have but two alternatives: one is to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of your intolerable situation as best you can; and the other, to find what we have found. This you can do if you honestly want to, and are willing to make the effort.”
Big Book , 1 st edition, 1 st printing: “If you are as seriously alcoholic as we were , we believe there is no middle-of-the-road solution. We were in a position where life was becoming impossible, and if we had passed into the region from which there is no return through human aid, we had but two alternatives: one was to go on to the bitter end, blotting out the consciousness of our intolerable situation as best we could ; and the other, to accept spiritual help . This we did because we honestly wanted to, and were willing to make the effort.”
Original Manuscript , How It Works : “Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our directions .”
Big Book , 1 st edition, 1 st printing: “Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path.”
Original Manuscript , How It Works : “Half measures will avail you nothing. You stand at the turning point. Throw yourself under His protection and care with complete abandon.
Now we think you can take it! Here the steps we took, which are suggested as your P rogram of R ecovery.”
Big Book , 1 st edition, 1 st printing: “Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point. We asked His protection and care with complete abandon.
Here are the steps we took , which are suggested as a program of recovery.”
(Given the reluctance of most alcoholics to ‘follow orders' – which was Dr. Howard's point in requesting these changes – it is hard to overestimate the importance of these edits. The Original Manuscript reads as a much more directive and authoritarian text than the Big Book as it was finally published in April of 1939)
Seven of the Twelve Steps also read a bit differently in the Original Manuscript:
Original Manuscript, Step 1 : “Admitted we were powerless…”
Big Book , 1 st edition, 1 st printing: “We admitted we were powerless…”
Original Manuscript, Step 3 : “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care and direction of God…”
Big Book , 1 st edition, 1 st printing: “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God…”
Original Manuscript, Step 6 : “Were entirely willing that God remove…”
Big Book , 1 st edition, 1 st printing: “Were entirely ready to have God remove...”
Original Manuscript, Step 7 : “Humbly, on our knees , asked Him to remove our shortcomings – holding nothing back .”
Big Book , 1 st edition, 1 st printing: “Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.”
Original Manuscript, Step 8 : “Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make complete amends to them all.”
Big Book , 1 st edition, 1 st printing: “Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.”
Original Manuscript, Step 11 : “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.”
Big Book , 1 st edition, 1 st printing: “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him , praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.”
Original Manuscript, Step 12 : “Having had a spiritual experience as the result of these steps…”
Big Book , 1 st edition, 2 nd printing: “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps…”
Besides these very important changes to both the ‘tone' of the Big Book and to the Twelve Steps themselves, there are a host of other edits that were made before the Big Book was officially printed. Certainly the most entertaining has to be the line that immediately follows the much revised a, b, c's as they appear in the Original Manuscript version of How It Works :
• That you are alcoholic and cannot manage your own life.
• That probably no human power can relieve your alcoholism.
• That God can and will.
If you are not conviced on these vital issues, you ought to re-read this book to this point or else throw it away! (sic...)
multilith offset
reproduction, trouvable aux USA (+ - 30 US $)
This exact copy of the Multilith Edition, now called the Original Manuscript, is really special. There is stuff in here, including profanities, that you will never see in any blue covered Book. Learn how AA was done before the Steps were written, before psycobabble replaced experience. When drunks knew this was life or death. Read what sobriety was like before rehabs, clubs, Thumpers, or even Old Timers. This stuff is raw, real, and good. EXCITING READING! The stories are unedited, and most were transcribed from actual talks at meetings
Most of it was written in 1938. This edition even includes a story that the AA member refused permission to print in the First edition when he found out where the profits were going.
