September in A.A. History—day unknown

In 1935, Bill W. began working with Hank P. [right] who was from Teaneck, New Jersey. Hank would become Bill’s first or second 12th-step success in New York City, the other being Fitz M. This event also marks the roots of A.A. in New Jersey.

In 1936, James Dellie “J.D.” H. [left] got sober and became A.A. #10 [though other sources cite him as #8 or #17]. A native of Graves County, Kentucky, J.D. was a newspaper writer from Akron, Ohio, and was nicknamed “Abercombie” by Dr. Bob Smith for reasons that J.D. never understood. He later recalled being taken care of by “nine or ten who preceded me.” He remembers meeting Dr. Bob and hearing his…

    … screwball idea about the drink problem. He was a Vermonter and I was a Southerner, and to me, he had the professional Northern type of attitude—gruff and blunt. But later, after he told me his story, I knew it was just his manner of speaking.

    There is evidence that J.D. slipped after a few months but returned after approximately four months. He would go on to establish Indiana’s first A.A. group in Evansville on 23 April 1940, which became known as the Tri-State Group. Subsequently, with Doherty “Dohr” S. [right], he would help spread A.A. throughout the state.

	In 1938 , Frank Amos [left] arranged a meeting between Bill W. [near right] and Eugene Exman [far right] , a friend of Amos and the religious editor of Harper Brothers Publishers. Exman offered Bill a $1,500 advance [~$34,400 in 2025] on the royalties from the sales of the book that would become Alcoholics Anonymous.

    Upon hearing this, the Alcoholic Foundation Board of Trustees would urge acceptance, but Bill and Hank P. [left] wanted book ownership to remain within the Fellowship. At Exman's suggestion, Hank would persuade Bill that they should form “One Hundred Men Corp.,” which, when women began seeking sobriety in A.A., became “Works Publishing, Inc.,” later “Alcoholics Anonymous Publishing,” and eventually “Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc.” (AAWS), the name that remains today. They planned to sell stock at a par value of $25 [~$570 in 2025]. Six hundred shares would be issued; Hank and Bill would each receive 200 shares, and the remaining 200 shares would be sold to others. Later, 30 shares of preferred stock with a par value of $100 [~$2,300 in 2025] would also be sold.

    Eventually, all of these shares would be bought back by the Alcoholic Foundation, with a loan from John D. Rockefeller [right]—except for Bill’s and Hank’s, which would essentially^* be relinquished without compensation. To appease the board, the author’s royalties, which would initially go to Bill, would instead go to the Alcoholic Foundation.

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^*Hank insisted on getting back the Alcoholic Foundation furniture he believed had come from Honors Dealers, but for which Bill claimed they had already compensated him. They eventually gave Hank another $200 [~$4,600 in 2025].