May 31 in A.A. History

In 1949, Bill W. responded [right] to a May 15th note from Ed W. [far left]. Ed had written to inform Bill that Barry C. [near left], a founder of A.A. in Minnesota, was doing much better.

     He also asked Bill to confirm that he had received the copies of The Little Red Book [right] that Ed had sent. As the primary author, Ed wanted the Alcoholic Foundation to take over its publication. Dr. Bob S. had contributed to the book, and Bill had praised it, but A.A.W.S. would not publish it because the Trustees preferred an A.A.-owned book.
    Bill wrote:

    I did receive those books.… Lois and I continue to reminisce about our pleasant visit with your group. God forbid that Alcoholics Anonymous ever become frozen or rigid in its ways of doing or thinking. Within the framework of our principles the ways are apparently legion. There is little doubt that the contributions you folks have made to our progress will always be a part of the folk lore [sic] of our well-loved fellowship.

In 1963, the Kodiak (Alaska) Mirror featured an article on page 5 titled “Local Alcoholics Anonymous Group Hears Report” [left] . It told of a representative—likely from Kodiak’s only A.A. group, the Isle of Hope Group—who attended the Alaska State A.A. Assembly in Anchorage. This representative delivered a report to local members, which included the following details:

    Methods of furthering AA’s efforts to help the alcoholic who still suffers from this disabling disease were discussed and a report was heard from Alaska’s delegate to the headquarters of Alcoholics Anonymous in New York City where the annual conference of delegates from the entire United States and the Provinces of Canada was held on April 15.

May 30 in A.A. History

In 1941, in Hartford, Connecticut [right, in early 1945] the two founding members of Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) had their last drinks without having met or known of each other until shortly afterward.
    Hal S., from the Shaker Heights Group in Ohio, was in Hartford on business when he asked a doctor if he knew any drunks. The doctor did not, but his nurse provided Hal with the name of Harold “Red” W. Hal called Red that evening, but Red was “indisposed.” They eventually met a few days later, and Red had his last drink on May 30.

    Meanwhile, Harold H., a salesman and periodic drunk, had read Jack Alexander’s article in The Saturday Evening Post [left: cover] but was put off by the “God business” and resigned himself to remaining a drunk. Shortly after, he found himself in a hospital after being beaten up and arrested. Upon his release, he attended a party on May 30, where he encountered an old drinking buddy, Brad P., who had sobered up in the Scarsdale Group in New York. He asked Harold if he wanted to die as an alcoholic. Having witnessed a man suffer from delirium tremens (the DTs), Harold said no and never drank again.
    Not long after, Harold and Red met and began recruiting other drunks.

In 1944, in Georgia, The Atlanta Constitution published an article [right] titled “‘Bill’ [W.] Defines Alcoholic as ‘Bankrupt Idealist.’” This demonstrates that Bill used the term “bankrupt idealist” eight years before it appeared in his Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (Tradition 6, page 156).

1964, Ebby T. arrived at McPike’s Farm [left], an innovative alcoholism treatment facility located in Galway, New York, near Saratoga Springs. Founded by Margaret and Mickey M. in the winter of 1958, the farm offered Ebby a chance to find some peace and alleviate the inner turmoil that had plagued him for much of his life. Sadly, less than two years later, he would die in a nearby hospital.

May 29 in A.A. History

In 1921, The Boston Globe (Massachusetts) published Dr. Frank Crane’s piece titled “Just for Today” [left], which has since been widely circulated in A.A. and Al-Anon. Dr. Crane [right] himself later remarked, “Bill [W.] did say we ‘borrowed.’ This time from Dr. Crane’s 1921 copyrighted material.”

In 1944, The Patriot (Harrisburg, Pennsylvania) published a column by Beatrix Fairfax, titled “Advice to the Lovelorn: ‘Alcoholics Anonymous’ Helps Make Homes Happy” [left], a column Fairfax is described as a “Famous Authority on Problems of Love and Marriage.”

In 1980, Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers [right: 1st edition, 1st printing], an authorized biography of A.A.’s co-founder and a history of early A.A. in the Midwest, was published. Niles P. was hired to write it, apparently with assistance from Barry L.; Ed N. and Ruth Hock may have also contributed.

In 2022, Elizabeth “Liz” B. [left] of Boston, Massachusetts, 100, died after 69 years and 11 months of sobriety. Originally from New York City, she was a friend of Bill W. and spoke at his 26th anniversary celebration.

May 28 in A.A. History

In 1907, Conor F. [right] was probably born in County Roscommon, Ireland. He would immigrate to the United States and get sober in 1943 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1946, he and Richard P. would found the first Alcoholics Anonymous group in Dublin, also the first A.A. group in Europe.

In 1974, the A.A. Fellowship in Great Britain was chosen to host the 3rd biennial A.A. World Service Meeting, making it the first time this event would be held outside the United States. A Site Committee, composed of members selected at the 2nd World Service Meeting, recommended England as the top choice for the 1974 gathering, “with Mexico or Finland as second and third choices,” respectively. The meeting was scheduled for 16–18 October 1974, at the Gloucester Hotel in London.

May 27 in A.A. History

In 1917, Nellie “Nell” Wing [right, c. 1946] was born in Kendall, New York, the daughter of William Frank and Daisy Shepard Wing.
    A non-alcoholic, she would serve as Bill W.’s secretary and administrative assistant at the Alcoholic Foundation/General Service Office in New York City from March 1947 until Bill’s death in 1971. In addition, she was A.A.’s first official Archivist from early 1972 until her retirement in December 1982.

In 1961, James “J.D.” Holmes, A.A. #8, died from “coronary insufficiency” at his home at 657 Elma Street [left, in Jun 2011] in Akron, Ohio, at the age of 66. He had gotten sober in Akron in September 1936.

Other significant events in May, day unknown

In 1923, Lois W., Bill’s wife [right: Bill and Lois on their Harley-Davidson, c. mid-1920s], suffered a third ectopic pregnancy, a condition in which the fertilized egg develops outside the uterus; her first two occurred in June and July 1922. In her memoir, Lois Remembers, she wrote:

    In May 1923 the improbably happened—a third ectopic. I was tutoring a young girl in Latin when I felt the first symptoms. After another operation I made a quick recovery. By then both tubes and the complete cystic ovary had been removed. A small portion of the other ovary was kept so that I might retain my feminine characteristics, it was said. Bill was often too drunk, for days at a time, to come to see me in the hospital.
    We had both deeply desired a family. But after my second ectopic, Bill and I knew positively that we could never have children. My tubes had apparently been closed since birth. Bill, even when drunk, took this overwhelming disappointment with grace and with kindness to me. But his drinking had been increasing steadily. It seemed that after all hope of having children had died, his bouts with alcohol had become even more frequent.
    I knew I had done nothing to prevent our having children; yet somehow I could not help feeling guilty. So how could I blame him for the increase in his drinking?
    This kind of thinking made me try harder to understand him and to be tolerant when he was drunk. But there were many times when I lost my temper. He never hit me, but I hit him. I remember with shame on time toward the end of his drinking, when I was so angry as he lay drunk on the bed that I beat his chest with both my firsts as hard as I could.

In 1932, Bill W., who had been sober for five weeks, and several engineers traveled to Bound Brook, New Jersey, to investigate a new photographic process at Pathé Laboratories [left]. Bill was the managing partner of a stock-buying syndicate, which he had formed with Arthur Wheeler and Frank Winans in April. His partnership agreement specified that if he drank, he would forfeit the full value of his share, including his original investment.

    After dinner, the engineers started a poker game and invited Bill to join them, but he declined. A jug of applejack called Jersey Lightning [right] appeared, and Bill also refused their repeated offers of a drink. By midnight, he found himself reminiscing about his drinking career: the Bronx cocktail that had been his first, the brandies he had on the ship to Europe during World War I, and the French wines. It became a game to list his drinking history and wonder what he hadn’t tasted. When the engineers offered him a drink once more, it occurred to him that he had never tried Jersey Lightning. He thought, “Why not? What harm could one taste do?”
    He was drunk for three days, and when his partners heard the story, he forfeited his entire interest in the syndicate.

May 25 in A.A. History

In 1925, Bill and Lois W. were 5½ weeks into their motorcycle trip investigating publicly held companies across the eastern U.S. At what the Burnham family called “The Camp,” located at Lake Emerald outside East Dorset, Vermont, Lois’s entry in her Diary of Two Motorcycle Hobos described how “Two tragedies occurred in the insect and bird life today.” With “astonishment,” she watched a dragonfly emerge “from the ugly brown beetle shell” she had found. As it flew away, a phoebe bird “darted down and gobbled it up!” Lois “sat down and cried. Later [that] afternoon one of the babies of the same phoebe bird fell out of the nest and was killed instantly” [right: phoebe eating a dragonfly]
.

In 1962, the three-day Central New York Area Conference [left: commemorative coin] began at the Watson Homestead Conference and Retreat Center [right] in Painted Post, New York.

In 1989, the four-day 32nd International Conference of Young People in Alcoholics Anonymous (ICYPAA) opened at the Salt Lake City Marriott and Salt Palace [left: aerial view of Salt Palace (left) and Marriott (right)] in Utah, drawing an attendance of 4,000. The theme of the conference was “Carry the Message.”

May 24 in A.A. History

In 1893, the Anti-Saloon League was founded in Oberlin, Ohio, by a group primarily consisting of ministers and professors who aimed to promote temperance and influence state government. It was a key component of the Progressive Era, enjoying strong support in the South and rural North, particularly from Protestant ministers and their congregations, especially Methodists, Baptists, Disciples, and Congregationalists. The League focused on legislation and was concerned with how legislators voted, rather than whether they drank. Its motto was “The saloon must go” [left: an Anti-Saloon League poster].
    Initially established as a state society in Ohio, the League’s influence spread rapidly, and it became a national organization in 1895. It quickly emerged as the most powerful prohibition lobby in the United States, overshadowing the older Woman’s Christian Temperance Union and the Prohibition Party. Its ultimate success came with the nationwide prohibition enshrined in the Constitution through the passage of the 18th Amendment in 1919.

In 1949, the American Psychiatric Association held its 105th annual meeting at the Windsor Hotel [right] in Montreal, Quebec, May 23–27. On Tuesday, the second day of the event, Bill W. delivered a talk titled “The Society of Alcoholics Anonymous.” During his presentation, he referenced an original six-step program, marking the earliest known mention of such a program. It had been 10½ years since he drafted the Twelve Steps for the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, in December 1938. He stated categorically that these six steps had not evolved over time, but had been explicitly given to him by Ebby T. in November 1934:

My former schoolmate [Ebby] did, however, ascribe his new sobriety to certain ideas that this alcoholic [Rowland Hazard] and other Oxford people had given him. The particular practices my friend had selected for himself were simple:

• He admitted he was powerless to solve his own problem.
• He got honest with himself as never before; made an examination of conscience.
• He made a rigorous confession of his personal defects.
• He surveyed his distorted relations with people, visiting them to make restitution.
• He resolved to devote himself to helping others in need, without the usual demand for personal prestige or material gain.
• By meditation he sought God’s direction for his life and help to practice these principles at all times.

In 1950, James “Jim” S. [far left], 63, chief librarian of the Akron Beacon Journal, died at his home in Akron, Ohio [near left: obituary]. He was the first Australian to achieve sobriety in Alcoholics Anonymous, doing so in Akron in June 1937. Scott solicited, edited, and sometimes wrote several stories from Akron members that were included in the first edition of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous. His own story appeared in that edition as “Traveler, Editor, Scholar” and in the second and third editions as “The News Hawk.”

May 23 in A.A. History

In 1888, Dr. Nathan Clark Burnham and Matilda Hoyt Spelman [left] were married—likely in the Swedenborgian Church [right]—in Brooklyn, New York. Their first child was Lois, who would marry Bill W.

May in A.A. History—day unknown

In 1954, [early; Pass It On wrongly states 1956] Bill W. received a letter from the notorious robber, kidnapper, and rapist Caryl Chessman [left, 1953], popularly known as “The Red Light Bandit.”

    In May 1948, Chessman was convicted on 17 of 18 counts for crimes committed during the first three weeks of January 1948. He was sentenced to death under California’s “Little Lindbergh Law”^* and, at the time he wrote to Bill, Chessman was on death row at San Quentin Prison [right: inside view, c. 1950s], awaiting execution on May 14. (He was granted a stay. Over nearly twelve years on death row, Chessman filed dozens of appeals, acting as his own attorney, and successfully avoided eight execution dates, often by only a few hours [below center: one headline when he was executed].)

    Later, in 1954, Prentice-Hall published Chessman’s autobiography, Cell 2455, Death Row: A Condemned Man’s Own Story [left: cover].^†  In it, Chessman drew a comparison between psychopaths and alcoholics. This prompted Jack Alexander, who likely saw a prepublication copy, to encourage him to write to Bill. Alexander wondered whether criminals could “recover” through a surrender similar to that of A.A. members, writing to Bill:

There is a close resemblance between the criminal psychopath and the alcoholic mind. Both are grandiose, resentful, defiant, and hating of authority; both unconsciously destroy themselves trying to destroy others.

    Chessman wrote to Bill that he

… woke up to the fact I’d been nothing more than a cynically clever, aggressively destructive, and sometimes violent damn fool.

    He decided he could do more than just feel sorry for himself:

I could tell my story and plead, not my personal cause, but society’s cause and the cause of those who—in my opinion, needlessly—are criminally damned and doomed.… I am most hopeful it will make a very useful contribution to a most vexing social problem.

    Bill replied on May 3. It is unknown whether Chessman ever saw the letter.

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^* This law had been repealed by the time Chessman’s trial began but was in effect at the time of his crimes, and the repeal was not retroactive.
^† Chessman began writing this memoir after San Quentin Prison Warden Harley Teets encouraged him to do something with his life. With Teets’s support, he chronicled his descent into what he called criminally insane behavior. When the book was published, it became a bestseller and was adapted into a movie of the same name in 1955. Its success led Teets to try to prevent Chessman from writing anymore; however, three additional books by Chessman were later smuggled out of prison and published. In 1957, Teets died while serving as warden.
    Clinton T. Duffy, the first warden to introduce the A.A. program into prisons and a prominent opponent of the death penalty, was warden when Chessman first arrived. Duffy described him as one of the most dangerous men he had ever met: tough, mean, contemptuous, arrogant, deviant, a troublemaker, and a constant threat—“Chessman represented nothing.”

May 22 in A.A. History

In 1940. Works Publishing, Inc. was legally established as the publishing arm of the Alcoholic Foundation. Bill W. [near right] and Hank P. [far right] were asked to surrender their stock, with the stipulation that Dr. Bob and Anne S. would receive 10% royalties on sales of Alcoholics Anonymous for life (35¢ per book [~$7.99 in 2025]), which would normally have been the author’s (i.e., Bill’s). Hank was persuaded to give up his shares in exchange for a payment of $200 [~$4,570 in 2025] for office furniture that he claimed belonged to him, although it likely had already paid for.

In 1943, Cleveland, Ohio’s Alcoholics Anonymous celebrated the 4th anniversary. The June 1943 Cleveland Central Bulletin reported on the event [left] as follows:

FOUNDERS’ ANNIVERSARY PARTY

    Over 300 [?] persons jammed Masonic Hall in Cleveland Heights when the originators of the AA movement in Cleveland helped sponsor the Fourth Anniversary party, Saturday evening, May 22, in conjunction with the Lee Mayfield Group. After an excellent dinner, where the choice was steak or chicken, various speakers arose and spoke on the progress of the AA movement in Cleveland. These speakers included the first Clevelander in AA and the several others who were convinced by him as well as well-known Akronites.
    Excellent entertainment was also supplied and with the singing of Old [sic] Lang Syne, the crowd disbanded united in praise for the committee who arranged this inspiring evening.

May 21 in A.A. History

In 1945, The New Republic published “Blueplate Gospel,” a review by Dr. Leslie H. Farber [left, c. 1981] of September Remember [right: 1st printing cover], by Eliot Taintor*. The review stated, in part,

    The advantage of the present 300-page pamphlet (disguised as a pulp-style novel) over the shorter booklets distributed by AA, lies in its detailed revelations of group ac­tivity. While the formal weekly meetings are devoted to inspirational talks by ex-alcoholics, coffee is drunk in no blue-nose spirit; good fellowship abounds (“You can get that sense of abandon without liquor”). AA members feel a natural solidarity: the way they would “get up and talk at meetings, really let their hair down, made other contacts seem thin and superficial. Other people shadowy.”

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* “Eliot Taintor” is a pseudonym for Ruth Fitch and Gregory Mason, a married couple.

In 1960, The Saturday Evening Post [right: cover] published “I Always Have Help,” written anonymously. The introduction read:

    A man who has had more than his share of trouble—alcoholism, shattered marriage, tragic losses—tells anonymously how he manages to face life, one day at a time.

The anonymous author wrote, in part,

    As I write this I’m in as warty a financial pickle as a small businessman could contrive—broke, no property, heavy family responsibili­ties, head of a small concern which is also broke, with creditors expecting in a few months to be paid $20,000 [about $190,000 in 2022] it hasn’t got. Less than this has driven highly strung people to break­down and even suicide, and I confess I am a little uneasy. But because of a limited grasp of a philosophy which members of a celebrated secret society call The 24-Hour Plan, I’m fairly confident of pulling through.… I took up with some people who were supposed to know how to lay hold of a situation of this kind. They gave me a book called Alcoholics Anonymous, and my eye fell on a remarkable passage. Be­fore I tell you what it said, let me assure the reader that he doesn’t have to be an alcoholic to proceed with this article; everyone concerned with open-minded living may find something of interest.

May 20 in A.A. History

In 1908, Sybil Doris A. [left: a young Sybil with her two older brothers] was born to Addie Jones and Henry A., poor but hardworking parents, in Melrose, New Mexico (probably at 108 Fifth Street, where the family was living in 1910 [right: 100 block, Aug 2019]). They soon moved to the small oil town of Simmons, Texas.

    Sybil began drinking around the age of 14 after her family relocated to Los Angeles, California, from Texas. She had a child with her first husband, James Stratton, a sailor. She believed that having the child would help her stop drinking, but instead, she drank more than ever. Eventually, her parents took the child from her.

    In 1928, she married Lyle Hart, with whom she had two children—one who died the day she was born in 1929 and another in 1931. They lived at 7319 S. Halldale Street [left, Dec 2017] in Los Angeles. In 1938, she married Richard M., and they lived for many years at 7711 S. Figueroa Street, Los Angeles [right: Sybil as a young adult].

    As Sybil M., she became the first woman west of the Mississippi to get sober in Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.). She later became best known by her fourth and second-to-last married name, Sybil C.

In 1938, two days after receiving an advance from Charles B. Towns, Bill W., who had been sober for less than 3½ years, began writing the book that would eventually become Alcoholics Anonymous. He likely began with his own story, marking the first of three attempts. This initial effort remains as a handwritten manuscript of fourteen paragraphs on eight sheets of yellow legal paper, titled “The Strange Obsession” [left: page 1].

In 1941, the 15th A.A. group in the Cleveland, Ohio area was formed and met at 12214 Detroit Ave. [right, Nov 2015], Lakewood, Ohio, with 16 members. It was the first known women’s group.

May 19 in A.A. History

In 1942, the War Department’s Office of the Adjutant General responded to Bill W.’s request for a commission in World War II, dated 6 March 1942. The reply [right] was a non-responsive form letter that stated, among other things:

All new applicants for the Army or the Army Specialist Corps are now being asked to fill out a revised form of questionnaire in duplicate.

You will note that the new questionnaire calls for more details than the old form you filled out originally. The reason for asking for more details is that they are needed by the Army Specialist Corps so that the applicant’s training, experience, skills, and interests can be adequately considered by that Corps when the branches of the Army call upon it to locate and appoint civilians fitted for specific technical, professional or administrative duties.

Sending you the new form to fill out does not mean that an offer of appointment will necessarily be made in the immediate future. All that can be said is that the revised system will make it easier to consider your application when men with your qualifications are needed. You are particularly requested not to make inquiries of the War Department as to the probability of your employment.

In 2000, Dr. Paul O. [left, with wife Max], sometimes referred to as “the funniest man in A.A.,” died at the age of 83 in Mission Viejo, California.
    His story, “Bronzed Moccasins,” credited to “A Physician in California,” was published in the May 1975 issue of the A.A. Grapevine. It later appeared in the third edition of Alcoholics Anonymous as “Doctor, Alcoholic, Addict,” and in the fourth edition as “Acceptance Was the Answer.” Dr. Paul began his journey to sobriety in December 1966, sobriety in December 1966, achieving permanent sobriety in July 1967. He started Pills Anonymous and Chemical Dependency Anonymous, but did not attend either group. He did not introduce himself as “an alcoholic and addict.” He was irritated by those who sought to include addictions other than alcoholism in A.A. In a July 1995 interview with the A.A. Grapevine, he expressed that his story may have “overshot the mark” because it was used to justify drug discussions in meetings. He felt “most uncomfortable” when members recognized him and thanked him for providing justification for such discussions. However, he also maintained that there was nothing in his story he would change.

May 18 in A.A. History

In 1926 [Date uncertain^*] Bill and Lois W. [right, 1926, on their Harley] were involved in a serious motorcycle accident while traveling through the eastern U.S. on a Harley-Davidson with a sidecar, as they researched publicly traded companies. The day before, in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, they had decided to head straight home to arrive in time for her sister Kitty’s wedding on June 17. Lois later wrote,

    Just outside of Dayton, Tennessee, I was driving on a sandy road, which apparently ran straight ahead, when suddenly, hidden by a large barn, it made a sharp
angled turn to the right. I tried to force the wheels, but the sand was too deep and over we went. Bill, in the sidecar, was thrown over my head, breaking his collarbone as he landed; I twisted my leg, causing water on the knee; the equipment flew in every direction; and the trunk burst open.
    Luckily a man in a car soon came along and drove us, dazed and badly scratched, to a doctor in town who set Bill’s shoulder, bandaged my knee, and there being no hospital, settled us in a hotel room over his office.
    During our week’s stay there, Bill and I tried to picture what the town had been like the year before during the Scopes Evolution trial. We imagined William Jennings Bryan as he paced back and forth on one of the hotel’s five fancy grill-railed balconies rehearsing his speech, and Clarence Darrow with his chair tilted back against the wall and his feet on the rail, haranguing a coterie of youths; while the streets were crowded with visitors come to hear the great orator and see the show.
    It wasn’t too long before we were able to return to the fateful corner. The man who had picked us up had collected all our duffle and put it and the motorcycle into the barn, as he said he would. Although the door was left open, and more than a week had passed, not a single article was missing; even such attractive and easily packed items as the traveling clock, compass and radio were all there.
    We made arrangements to have the motorcycle and most of the gear shipped to Brooklyn. Then in a few days, when the doctor said we could travel, we took the train for home.

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^* Dayton is about 210 miles [~340 km] northeast of Muscle Shoals. The date assigned assumes it took one day to get there.

 

In 1950, Dr. Bob S. told Bill W., “I reckon we ought to be buried like other folks,” after hearing that A.A. members in Akron, Ohio, were hoping to erect a large monument to him. Bill recounted this in his “Dr. Bob” tribute in the January 1951 A.A. Grapevine [left: Dr. Bob and Anne’s grave]:

A year ago, when Anne passed away, the thought of an im­posing shaft came uppermost in the minds of many. People were insistent that something be done. Hear­ing rumors of this, Dr. Bob promptly declared against AAs erecting for Anne and himself any tangible memorials or monument. These usual symbols of personal distinction he brushed aside in a single devas­tating sentence. Said he, “Annie and I plan to be buried just like other folks.”

In 1978, at 1:10 a.m., an explosive device, believed to be dynamite, detonated at the front door of what the FBI identified as “the Alcoholics Anonymous^* Faith Club” [right] at 2814 Clovis Road, Lubbock, Texas. Fortunately, there were no injuries; however, property damage was estimated at $2,500 [~$12,000 in 2024].

    Lubbock police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives responded to the scene. The FBI, Secret Service, and an Assistant U.S. District Attorney for the Northern District of Texas were also notified. The ATF agreed that the “FBI would assume jurisdiction… due to possible terrorist involvement.” The FBI attempted to determine whether any “known militant Mexican-American organizations operating in the Lubbock area, or any incidents which would create a climate for militant activity,” However, no suspects were ever identified, and no charges were filed [left: first non-cover page, redacted, of 37-page FOIA response regarding this incident].

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^* It appears that other activities, in addition to A.A., were taking place at the Faith Club.