August in A.A. History, date unknown

	In 1936, Frank Buchman [left, 1936] traveled to Germany for the Olympic Games, feeling a heavy burden about Hitler’s actions there due to his deep attachment to the country and its people. While in Berlin, he shared his concerns with Danish journalist Jacob Kronika [right, 1945] at the Esplanade, stating,

    Germany has come under the dominion of a terrible demoniac force. A counter-action is urgent. We must ask God for guidance and strength to start an anti-demoniac counter-action under the sign of the Cross of Christ in the democratic countries bordering on Germany, especially in the small neighbouring countries.

	Upon arriving in Berlin, Moni von Cramon arranged for Buchman to attend a lunch hosted by a German diplomat and his wife, where Himmler [left] would be present. Buchman hoped to secure an interview with Himmler, believing that through him, he could reach Hitler [right]. He managed to schedule an appointment for a few days later.

    However, the “interview” turned out to be a complete disaster. Himmler had hoped to exploit the “absolute obedience” to God exhibited by Moral Re-Armament^* for the benefit of his followers in the S.S. and the Nazis, but he completely failed in this.
    Younger colleagues who accompanied Buchman to the interview confirmed his account, reporting that Himmler entered with several henchmen, delivered a propagandistic speech about Nazism, and left without allowing Buchman or his associates to speak. Buchman’s immediate response was, “Here are devilish forces at work. We can’t do anything here.”
    Ultimately, he never met Hitler and did not make any further attempts to do so.

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^*Abbreviated “MRA,” and formerly known as the Oxford Group

In 1939, Herbert “Bert” T. [left], a member of A.A. in New York City, pledged his fashionable 5th Ave. tailor shop—already heavily mortgaged due to his drinking—as collateral for a $1,000 [~$23,000 in 2025] loan to Works Publishing.
    Bill W. was desperate to keep the business afloat until the article “Alcoholics and God,” edited by Fulton Oursler, was published in Liberty magazine. To secure the funds, Bert reached out to a wealthy client, Mr. Cochran, in Baltimore, Maryland, who was sympathetic to A.A. Bert explained the situation and requested a loan. Cochran hesitated. When Bert suggested that he buy stock in Works Publishing, Cochran expressed even more doubt and, after reviewing the balance sheet, declined the offer. Finally, Bert proposed co-signing a loan, which Cochran enthusiastically accepted.

    Bill later wrote, “This probably saved the book company.” The magazine article would be published on September 30 [right: magazine cover]; it would generate 800 inquiries and result in sufficient book sales to sustain Works Publishing through 1939. Unfortunately, Bert’s tailor shop would go broke within a year or two.

    [Some sources date this loan to December 6, but that date makes no sense.] 

August 30 in A.A. History

In 1943, the Selective Service finally responded to Clarence S.’s application to become an officer in the U.S. Army, informing him that his request had been referred to another department. He had previously served a brief stint at Officer Candidate School in the U.S. Army in 1942. A month earlier, he had been classified as 1-A by the Selective Service [right: Clarence in uniform].

August 29 in A.A. History

In 1886, T. Henry Williams [right] was born in South Woodstock, Connecticut. In the 1930s, he and his wife, Clarace, hosted meetings of the Oxford Group at their home [left] in Akron, Ohio. This location served as a meeting place for early members of Alcoholics Anonymous, who referred to themselves as the Alcoholic Squad of the Oxford Group. At the end of 1939, they began meeting separately as an independent A.A. group.

In 1956, Bill W. first took LSD in California under the guidance of Gerald Heard, a British-born American historian, science writer, public lecturer, educator, and philosopher. Heard had introduced Bill to Aldous Huxley, an English writer and philosopher, as well as to British psychiatrists Drs. Humphry Osmond^* and Abram Hoffer, who were working with schizophrenic and alcoholic patients in Canada. At that time, LSD was believed to have psychotherapeutic potential, with research being funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Academy of Sciences. Osmond and Hoffer aimed to induce an experience similar to delirium tremens (the DTs) in the hope of shocking alcoholics away from alcohol. Bill took LSD with Heard and Huxley. 
    Among those Bill later invited to experiment with LSD, and who accepted, were Nell Wing, Father Ed Dowling, Sam Shoemaker, Lois W. (a reluctant participant), Marty M., and Helen W. They participated in these experiments in New York under the medical supervision of a psychiatrist from Roosevelt Hospital. The experiments would also have significant repercussions within Alcoholics Anonymous, yet Bill continued his LSD experiments into 1959 and possibly into the 1960s.

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^*Osmond coined the term “psychedelic”—from the Greek ψυχή (psyche, meaning “mind”) and δῆλος (delos, meaning “manifest”)—in a letter to Huxley in April 1956.

Today in A.A. History—August 29–September 1

	In 1991, the 34th International Conference of Young People in Alcoholics Anonymous (ICYPAA) took place in at the Hilton San Francisco [right: c. 1971–73] in San Francisco, California [far left: registration form; near left: one bit of swag from the event].

August 28 in A.A. History

	In 1926, Bill W. spent several days visiting and otherwise investigating the American Writing Paper Co. [right: stock certificate; left: logo]. Two days later, his wife, Lois, summarized in her diary what Bill had told her:

    Paper making had always sounded dull until we came here and learned a little about it. It turns out to be complicated and quite an art. Saturday Bill took me through one of the plants where red photographic paper for Eastman and blue paper for phonograph records are made. The company has the government contract for postcards and envelopes.
    Bill raves about the ability and personality of the president, Mr. Willson, and instead of a report about costs and profits, he plans to write about the power of one man to make a success of a company that had failed. All those with whom Bill has talked, whether laborer, superintendent, or official of the company, has been full of enthusiasm and pep, eager to do a good job for Mr. Willson. He has won me over, too, for Saturday afternoon he asked Bill and me to go up Mt. Tom with him.

August 27 in A.A. History

In 1862, Gardner Fayette Griffith [right] (Bill W.’s maternal grandfather) enlisted at the age of 21 in Danby, Vermont, for nine months with Company B of Vermont’s 14th Regiment, which would be called up into the Union Army. In return, he received a bounty of $100 [~$3,200 in 2025] from the town of Danby.

Today in A.A. History—August 27–30

	In 1992, the 35th International Conference of Young People in Alcoholics Anonymous (ICYPAA) took place at the Marriott Society Center Hotel* [left] in Cleveland, Ohio. The theme was “Back to Basics” [right: souvenir tee shirt]. *Later renamed the Marriott at Key Center, likely in 1994, shortly after the Society Center was renamed the Key Center.

August 26 in A.A. History

In 1910, William James [left, 1903], 68, died of heart failure at his family's summer home in Chocorua, New Hampshire.

In 1935, Bill W. [right] returned to New York City from Akron, Ohio. Reflecting on his journey, he later said,

    By the time I got home, I was endowed with a little more humility, a little more understanding, and considerably more experience. Very slowly a group began to take shape.

    He began looking for drunks to help at Calvary Mission and Towns Hospital. His first two successes came from Towns Hospital: Hank P. [far left] from Teaneck, New Jersey, and Fitz M. [near left] from Cumberstone, Maryland.^* Bill and his wife, Lois, started a group^† for drunks trying to get sober that met on Tuesday nights in their home at 182 Clinton St., Brooklyn.
    Their home would also serve as a kind of halfway house for alcoholics who had nowhere else to go.

---

^*It’s unclear who got sober first, Hank or Fitz.
^†This group would later be recognized to have been the second group of Alcoholics Anonymous.

In 1936, the New York World-Telegram published a story about Frank Buchman [right, 1936] written by William A. H. Birnie. Birnie had been given a personal interview with Buchman after arriving to Buchman’s press conference the day before, after it was over.
    Buchman and the Oxford Group faced a public relations disaster when other media outlets began quoting only selected portions of the interview, omitting crucial context.

HITLER OR ANY FASCIST LEADER CONTROLLED BY GOD 
COULD CURE ALL ILLS OF WORLD, BUCHMAN BELIEVES.

    To Dr Frank Nathan Daniel Buchman, vigorous, outspoken, 58-year-old leader of the revivalist Oxford Group, the Fascist dictatorship of Europe suggests infinite possibilities for remaking the world and putting it under “God Control”.
    “I thank heaven for a man like Adolf Hitler, who built a front line of defense against the anti-Christ of Communism,” he said today in his book-lined office in the [Oxford Group] annex of Calvary Church, Fourth Ave and 21st St.
    “My barber in London told me Hitler saved Europe from Communism. That's how he felt. Of course, I don't condone everything the Nazis do. Anti-Semitism? Bad, naturally. I suppose Hitler sees a Karl Marx in every Jew.
    “But think what it would mean to the world if Hitler surrendered to the control of God. Or Mussolini. Or any dictator. Through such a man God could control a nation overnight and solve every last, bewildering problem.”

    The remaining twenty-two paragraphs outlined Buchman's vision of what a God-controlled country might look like, along with his claim that God could reveal His will to anyone:   

The world won’t listen to God, but God has a plan for every person, every nation. Human ingenuity is not enough. That is why the ’isms are pitted against each other and blood flows.

    In his press interviews, Buchman aimed to share his profound experiences of change while also answering the reporter's questions. He devoted much of the time in this interview discussing his personal encounter with the Cross of Christ, a power he believes is strong enough to eliminate hatred from his own life and, consequently, capable of transforming anyone—even a dictator.
    The often-quoted legend from this interview claims that Buchman said, “Thank God for Hitler.” However, this phrase was neither uttered by Buchman nor included in the article. Furthermore, those who were present at the interview assert that it did not reflect the overall tone. For instance, Garrett Stearly stated,

    I was present at the interview. I was amazed when the story came out. It was so out of key with the interview. This had started with an account of the Oxford Group’s work in Europe. Buchman was asked what about Germany. He said that Germany needed a new Christian spirit, yet one had to face the fact that Hitler had been a bulwark against Communism there—and you could at least thank heaven for that. It was a throw-away line. No eulogy of Hitler at all.

    Others held contrary perspectives. In 2016, a blogger posted the following:

    Buchman, who had attended Nazi rallies and was Heinrich Himmler’s guest at the Berlin Olympics, was a Nazi appeaser. If his cult had targeted the disenfranchised and disaffected like so many others, this position might not have caused much harm. But Buchman sought and obtained power and influence. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and his principle foreign affairs advisor Sir Horace Wilson were both members of the Oxford Group. When Buchman advised giving Hitler whatever he wanted to prevent war, they listened.

In 1940, Bill W. wrote to Dr. Bob S.:

    To say that I am overjoyed with the progress of Alcoholics Anonymous is stating the case mildly. For a long time I was earful that weak situations… would develop in large numbers as a result of publicity and half-baked starts. But even Washington now has a strong group and places that were shaky such as Los Angeles and San Francisco are coming on beautifully both in quality and quantity. It has become evident only with the last two or three months that the casual traveler, the book, and our central office correspondence and “propaganda” is sufficient to spread AA all over the country. That is a demonstrated fact about which I have no doubt whatever. Neither would anyone who has seen the amazing correspondence which rolls into this office. In some instances there has been no personal contact at all—just our correspondence and the book. An increasing number of people are coming to light who have been dry on the book alone. In many instances they have commenced to work with other people. It is all truly miraculous. Considering the amount of attention and nursing and the great difficulty of starting the original groups, it is all quite incomprehensible. Nevertheless, nationwide success is already here. We cannot possibly fail now.

In 1941, the Cuyahoga County^* Central Committee met for the third time. Their bulletin to all groups announced plans for a Halloween party and a New Year’s Eve party for “all the combined groups,” and inquired if anyone was interested in forming a bowling league. 

	Additionally, it noted the availability of two A.A. pamphlets: 1) the Houston Press articles [left: in pamphlet form] written by Larry J., and 2) the Cleveland Plain Dealer articles [right: once such article].

    This shows that the Cleveland fellowship was actively engaged not only in meetings and Twelfth Step work but also in public relations and social activities.

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^*Cuyahoga County includes Cleveland, Ohio and its surrounding areas.

	In 2012, Московские Начинающие (Moscow Beginners) celebrated its 25th anniversary with the theme “Наша дверь всегда открыта…” (Our door is always open…) [left: meeting room; right: token from the 25th anniversary].

August 25 in A.A. History

In 1926, Bill W., “in high glee, all dressed up in his neatly pressed old suit,” went “to interview the president of the American Writing Paper Co.” [right: American Writing Paper Co. cylinder machine in Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1936-7] . 

     He and Frank Shaw, the only Wall Street friend still interested in financing Bill’s valuation services, had developed a strong interest in the company, which was then in receivership. The day before, Bill and Lois had ridden their motorcycle [left: Lois on the Harley, 1925] to Holyoke, where the company’s headquarters and 13 of its 23 original rag paper mills were located. They set up camp and had Bill’s suit pressed. In a note added to her Diary of Two Motorcycle Hobos in 1973, Lois wrote:

     Upon our return from Holyoke, Frank was so pleased with Bill’s report on the American Writing Paper Co. That [sic] he gave Bill a regular weekly salary of $50 [~$890 in 2024], as well as options on stock. This permitted us to feel secure enough financially to buy a second-hand car, in which it would be much easier to make the extended trips for Bill’s work. So in early October we left Brooklyn for Vermont and parts north, in our new-to-us 1924 Dodge [right: 1924 Dodge touring car], for which we paid $250 [~$4,440 in 2024]

	In 1934, Edwin “Ebby” T. [left] appeared in court for shooting pigeons with a shotgun [right], believing the birds would ruin the new paint job on his house [below left: Dunean House, 110 Taconic Rd, Manchester, Vermont]. Judge Collins Millard Graves [below right] sent him home for the weekend, ordering him to return to court on Monday, and warning him to arrive sober.
		Back at home, Ebby had 3 or 4 bottles of his favorite beer, Ballantine’s Ale, waiting for him in a cool cellar. Something unexpected happened when he got there:

    So down I went [into the cellar], and I reached for a bottle of ale, and I couldn’t take it. I had said I would be there sober, and this wouldn’t exactly be sobriety. I went upstairs and this voice said, “Oh, don’t be silly. Go down and get that ale. My God, you’re shaking. Go on down and get it.” Well, I couldn’t do it. It wasn,t playing the game square, the way I looked at it. And when I finally made the decision not to touch it and took it over to a friend of mine, three or four houses away, I felt right then a great release from the whole thing. And that lasted for me for over two years. That was the start of the whole release from the problem for the time being.

    This marked the beginning of Ebby’s first sustained period of sobriety, which lasted long enough for him to introduce Bill W. to certain new ideas about getting and staying sober.

	Around the same time, during a visit to Rowland Hazard [left, 1921] in Bennington, Vermont, Cebra Graves [right], son of Judge Graves, learned that Ebby was facing criminal charges and the possibility of commitment to the Brattleboro Retreat (formerly the Vermont Asylum for the Insane) [below right] due to his drinking problem.
Cebra and Rowland decided to take on Ebby as a “a project.” They attended Ebby’s trial and persuaded Judge Graves to release Ebby into their custody. That fall, despite having just met him, Rowland took Ebby to New York City, where he had sobered up with the help of the Oxford Group at Calvary Mission.

In 1936, upon returning from the Olympic Games in Germany, where he had met with Himmler, Frank Buchman [left, Jan 1936], founder of the Oxford Group (OG), held a press conference at Calvary House.

    While nearly all the journalists sent out routine stories, William A. H. Birnie, a reporter for the afternoon paper New York World-Telegram [right: front page, 5 Aug 1936], arrived late and requested a special interview. In the presence of several colleagues, in the room, Buchman answered the reporter’s questions.

      At the time, it seemed inconsequential, but this encounter would soon lead to a public relations disaster for the OG.

August 24 in A.A. History

In 1948, in the early morning hours, police raided the Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) Club in Springfield, Missouri. Seven members were arrested, tried, and convicted for gambling, even though the bets were limited to just 10 cents. The police deemed the activity illegal, resulting in front-page newspaper coverage that same day [right: Springfield Leader and Press story, pp. 1, 6].

In 2020, Clancy I. [left], 93, died of an undetermined cause while in isolation after testing positive for COVID-19, according to his daughter, Mary I. Dougherty. He was undergoing rehabilitation for a broken hip and was nearing the end of his isolation period when the rehabilitation center informed her of his passing.

    Clancy had served as the director of the Midnight Mission [right (recent)] in Los Angeles for 46 years and was a sponsor to thousands. With a sobriety date of 31 October 1958, he had over 61 years of continuous sobriety. He left a very successful career at a Beverly Hills marketing firm to become the managing director of the Midnight Mission on Skid Row. Thus, he returned as a transformative leader to an institution that had previously expelled him for bad behavior. Under his leadership, the soup kitchen and residential facilities expanded, implementing programs to address the social needs of the Skid Row community.

August 23 in A.A. History

In 1895, Junius C. Jr. [right: at the U.S. Naval Academy, c. 1915] was born in McComb, Mississippi, to Junius Sr. and Thomasine C. He was the middle child among three surviving sons. Tragically, his father died when Junius was just two years old. His older brother, Joe, had died at the age of 11 months in 1889, six years before Junius's birth.
    Later in life, Junius would become a founder of Alcoholics Anonymous in Jacksonville, Florida.

In 1940, the Berea Group was started [on August 27, according to How It Worked] at the home of Bob J. near Cleveland, Ohio. It branched off from the Lakewood Group and initially had eight members. Soon after, it would relocate to the St. Thomas Episcopal Church [left, with Ogilvy Chapel to its right] Parish Hall in Berea, Ohio.
    By the end of its first year, the group had grown to thirty members. An announcement in the August 1943 issue of the Central Bulletin provided details about the group and its meeting location:

    This group is noted for its friendliness and hospitality.… Berea has most unusual quarters. It meets in the delightfully simple rooms of the Parish Hall of St. Thomas’ which is itself a tiny jewel of a church on the very edge of the Baldwin-Wallace campus. The tall elms and maples, the broad stretches of lawn, the quiet of this charming village plus the dignity and serenity of the church all lend an air of peace and rest to these pleasant meetings. Any of you who have ever attended a Berea meeting will never forget it.

August 22 in A.A. History

In 1945, the first Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) meeting in Scotland took place. This event was highlighted in an article [right, highlighted] titled “Alcoholics Anonymous Come to Scotland” published by Scotland’s The Sunday Mail:     Six men who met in a Church vestry in Perth this week-end made Scottish history—when they formed the first Scots branch of Alcoholics Anonymous.     Most unorthodox movement in the world—in began in America—Alcoholics Anonymous has as its only members people who are addicted to alcohol.     They set out as drunkards to help cure one another, to the extent of being prepared at a moment’s notice to go out at any time of the day or night to help a “brother” in distress.
	The two most likely churches for this event are St. Matthew’s (West Church) [far left] or St. John’s Kirk [near left].

In 1985, Francis “Barry” L. Jr. [left: a middle-aged Barry], 66, died at his home in Manhattan. He would be buried [right: gravestone] in Weatherford, Texas, where he grew up.

    Barry earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English and Journalism from Texas Wesleyan College in Fort Worth, Texas, where he taught those subjects for two years in the early 1940s. He later completed his doctorate at Yale University.
    In 1944, he relocated to New York City, where he got sober in 1945. He became one of the first openly gay members of Alcoholics Anonymous and played a crucial role in discussions about inclusivity within the organization, particularly concerning LGBTQ+ members. He was also involved in early efforts to establish special meetings for gay men in 1945.

Barry testified before the U.S. Congress and appeared on television to advocate for legislation addressing alcoholism. He authored Living Sober [left: 1st ed., 1st pr. cover] (1975) and the pamphlet “Do You Think You’re Different?” [right: cover of current printing] (1977), which included two stories by gay authors.

    Additionally, he co-authored Lois’s book Lois Remembers [right] and worked as a staff writer at the General Service Office (GSO) of A.A., where he recorded and wrote many of the early General Service Conference final reports. He also worked on the A.A. Grapevine staff. Barry retired from GSO 18 months before his death.

    He became a trusted friend of Bill and Lois Wilson, growing particularly close to Lois after Bill’s death in 1971. In 1978, Lois presented Barry with a copy of the original manuscript [left: 1st page of “How It Works”] of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous. The following year, Barry signed a notarized letter gifting the manuscript to A.A. World Services, while retaining possession for the remainder of his life—a fact he discussed publicly shortly before his death in 1985.
    His final major public appearance was at the 8th International Convention of Alcoholics Anonymous, celebrating its 50th anniversary in Montreal, Quebec, just a month prior to his death.

August 21 in A.A. History

In 1988, during the 1st Canadian National A.A. Convention at the Halifax Metro Centre—renamed Scotiabank Centre in 2014—in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a group of LGBTQ members met at the Sheraton Hotel. In 2011, Mike A., who attended the event, recounted the details of that meeting:

    In August, 1988 we had the first Canadian National AA Roundup [sic] which had nearly 5,000 people at one time in the Metro Center. People from all over the US and Canada (and perhaps other continents, not sure) came to this gathering.  Eyebrows were raised, eyes rolled when 3 people who got up to read Steps, Traditions, etc. said “Hello, my name is _____ and I am a GAY alcoholic.” The G Word caused a slight flap. One member, JJL[――] [right], met a number of friends of Bill W. and ‘Dorothy.’ He was tall and carrying a shoulder-bag, they couldn't miss him. Someone said, “There are an awful lot of ‘us’ here, perhaps we should have our own meeting!” A Flyer [sic] was typed up and put on notice boards and a member from Vancouver said we could have a meeting in his Suite (at the Sheraton, now called Marriott) which had a large meeting room.
    Twenty-seven people came to our meeting on Sunday afternoon. Surprise! We're everywhere! It was a most uplifting meeting, we were all impressed that so many nice people came on short notice. Several people said, “Hey! We could have our own Roundup!”
    Georgina C[――] and Leonard, Mike A’s partner, were surprised that they were nominated—right out of the blue—to be our first Co-Chairs. They accepted (relented?) and a date was set for October to have a meeting to discuss the possibilities.

    The outcome would be the Courage Roundup [left: logo], “an annual gathering of LGBT alcoholics and those affected by the alcoholism of others, that is, an LGBT Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon.”

August 20 in A.A. History

In 1940, Clarence and Dorothy S. [right] were divorced. They both had very strong personalities and were active members of Alcoholics Anonymous.

    Afterwards, Clarence wrote to Ruth Hock [left]:

    O Well, it is about in line with about everything else I hear about myself, including being engaged to seven different girls, secretly married to four, drunk and disorderly, married to an heiress and engaged to two others, and a wife beater. So what the hell. On the contrary, I am doing fine, officially single, sober (3 years) don’t ever expect to slip, don’t beat anyone’s wife, no heiress’ [sic] have proposed to me, but just going along. Have been fired out of out of the finance business and am now selling Fords… Have had a lot of interesting experiences in the past 3 years and have since listened to some screwy ideas. Which convinces me that all the nuts aren’t alkies... All in all it’s a great world.

    Dorothy wrote to Ruth also:

    Dear Sugar-Puss, Tell Bill that Prince Blue-Flame is getting a divorce from his “100% I Am” wife—said that a man needed a woman—I gather that spiritual mysticism wasn’t enough.