May 9 in A.A. History

In 1882, Silas B. was born in Millersburg, Kentucky, the youngest of three known children of Rev. James McClelland and Sarah Ann “Sallie” Burnam B. He became a journalist, sobered up as A.A. #3 (or 4) in New York City, and wrote an early story about Alcoholics Anonymous titled “There Is Hope” [below], published in the 19 Jan 1939, issue of The Hackettstown (NJ) Courier-Post. He would relapse within a year and died in 1945.

In 1944, at the invitation of Drs. Silkworth and Tiebout, Bill W. gave a talk to the Section on Neurology and Psychiatry at the annual meeting of the Medical Society of the State of New York.

    In 1949, this talk, along with another presented to the American Psychiatric Association, was published as a pamphlet titled “Alcoholism the Illness.” Later, a third talk on alcoholism given by Bill to the New York City Medical Society in 1958 was included, and the pamphlet was retitled “Three Talks to Medical Societies by Bill W.” [left]. This pamphlet was “retired” by a General Service Conference Advisory Action in 2017, as the committee deemed the content “dated” and “not helpful for today’s communication about A.A.”