February 11 in A.A. History

In 1938, Clarence S. [left] had his last drink. 

    An unemployed banker from Lyndhurst, Ohio, his drinking had etranged him from his wife, Dorothy. Dorothy's sister Virginia lived in New York City, and her family doctor was Dr. Leonard Strong, Bill W.’s brother-in-law. When Virginia mentioned her brother-in-law’s problems to Dr. Strong, he told her about Dr. Bob S. and A.A. Virginia relayed this to her sister.
    When Clarence came to Dorothy begging to come home, she told him he had to take Dr. Bob’s “cure” first. She put him on a bus to Akron with a scrap of paper that had Dr. Bob’s name, office address, office hours, office phone number, and home phone number.
    Clarence’s story in the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, appears in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd editions as “Home Brewmeister.”

In 1938, Hank P. had asked Fitz M., who lived in Maryland near the Chesapeake Bay, to find out how many books in the Library of Congress were titled The Way Out or Alcoholics Anonymous. Fitz wired back to Hank at Bill W.’s home address:

1939 Feb 11 AM 12 19
WA 13 50 NL=CA WASHINGTON DC 10
HENRY G PARK HURST
182 CLINTON ST BROOKLYN NY=
NO TITLE CAN BE REGISTERED IN COPYRIGHT OFFICE TO SECURE MONOPOLY OF ITS USE STOP LIBRARY OF CONGRESS HAS 25 BOOKS THE WAY OUT 12 THE WAY NINE THIS WAY OUT NONE ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS NONE COMES DAWN MY PET STOP OUR TRIP TO BROOKLYN DEFINITELY OFF-BUSINESS BRISKER AM WRITING.=
FITZ

    Bill and Hank immediately declared the title to be Alcoholics Anonymous or, as Bill later admitted, “we left the title ‘Alcoholics Anonymous’ in the copy that went to the printer [less than a week later]” (i.e., they had already put their preferred title on the master copy). In later retellings, Bill would incorrectly state that the number of books already titled The Way Out was 12, not 25, which allowed him to argue that it would have been bad luck to produce the 13th book with that title.

In 1940, Margaret D. of Seattle, Washington wrote the Alcoholic Foundation about her husband. The Foundation would respond by mail on March 6. Margaret would eventually play a role in organizing Seattle’s first A.A. group on April 19, although it is uncertain exactly what that role was.