Writing the Big Book, William H. Schaberg
Writing the Big Book, William H. Schaberg
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Writing the Big Book
The Creation of A.A.

Author: William H. Schaberg

Narrator: Natasha Soudek

Unabridged: 37 hr 34 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 12/19/2019


Synopsis

In Writing the Big Book, William H. Schaberg presents an exciting, research-driven narrative of the history of the book, Alcoholic Anonymous, and the formative years of A.A. Granted extensive access to the group's archives along with several other sources, the author reveals the early Fellowship's conflicts and personalities, successes and failures, and dispels many of the myths found in such canonical texts as Dr. Bob and the Good Old Timers, Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, and A Brief History of the Big Book.

The result of eleven years of in-depth research, Schaberg's history relies whenever possible on primary, real-time documents. He thoroughly investigates the book's authorship, illuminating the lesser-known contributions of figures like Hank Parkhurst and Frank Amos, and reveals how the spiritual side of the A.A. program evolved and was vigorously debated.

The book focuses primarily on the eighteen months between October of 1937, when a book was first proposed, and April of 1939, when Alcoholics Anonymous was published. During the span of those eighteen months, the wealth of available archival materials provides for an almost week-by-week accounting of events, including an amazing amount of previously unreported details, resulting in a comprehensive and compelling story.

About William H. Schaberg

William H. Schaberg is a scholar and rare book dealer based in Fairfield, Connecticut. His interest in the history of ideas led him to amass a large collection of first edition philosophy texts and inspired his first scholarly work, The Nietzsche Canon: A Publication History and Bibliography. Schaberg has delivered lectures on Nietzsche, William James, and other philosophers with his mentor King Dykeman at his alma mater Fairfield University. He has also studied for the priesthood in a Catholic seminary, served in the United States Air Force, and ran a family printing business for over thirty years before retiring to commit more energy to his bookselling business, Athena Rare Books. Schaberg's scholarly investigation into the authorship of Alcoholics Anonymous was an eleven-year project that, like his Nietzsche book, began with bibliographical confusion over the text's prepublication history and culminated in an unprecedented chronology of the "Big Book" origins.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ross

It's hard to know how to rate or recommend Writing the Big Book... it depends on just how interested you are in the history of Alcoholics Anonymous. The level of concern given to accuracy and thoroughness is laudable, but the level of detail is overwhelming, repetitive, and way more than I needed as......more

Goodreads review by Wendell

This well-researched book has absolutely fascinating detail about the early years of Alcoholics Anonymous. Using archives of Alcoholics Anonymous and the Stepping Stone Foundation Schaberg paints a month-by-month picture of the peiod from 1935 through 1939 when AA was founded and publicized through......more

Goodreads review by Jim

What wonderful research the author did writing this book. The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous is one of the most influential books of our times. It was so well written and thought through I often wondered how they did it, and Schaberg’s book tells you exactly how, why and when they did what they di......more

Goodreads review by Patrick

Writing of the Big Book By William H Schaeberg - [ ] This is a 37 hour long book, I will be reading it over months - [ ] The four main eye witness; Bill, Ebby, an atheist and the first secretary - all unreliable sources - [ ] This book relies on actual primary sources and the objective facts. The peo......more

Goodreads review by Joe

11 years of research--I always wonder if an author would sign-up for such a journey if they really knew ahead of time, what was in store. William answered me, but the answer doesn't stick with me, I think he went back to topic he was so passionate about. Is it helpful for an author to be realistic a......more