December in A.A. History—day unknown

In 1912, in Paris, France, La Clochette (The Little Bell) published the earliest known version of what would later be known as “The Prayer of St. Francis.” This version was published anonymously under the title “Belle prière à faire pendant la messe” (A Beautiful Prayer to Say During the Mass) [left]. 
    La Clochette was a small spiritual magazine that published monthly in French from 1901 to 1919, operated by a Catholic Church organization in Paris called La Ligue de la Sainte-Messe (The League of the Holy Mass). Founded by Father Esther Bouquerel (1855–1923), who also edited the magazine, it had about 8,000 subscribers. The author of this prayer could very well have been Father Bouquerel himself, as he wrote the majority of the texts in La Clochette. Some researchers have noted similarities between this prayer and Pope Leo XIII’s 1899 la Prière de la Consécration (du genre humain) au Sacré-Cœur de Jésus (The Prayer of Consecration (of the human race) to the Sacred Heart of Jesus). However, the true identity of the author remains a mystery.

In 1934 [late December], Bill and Lois W. started attending Oxford Group meetings in New York City with Ebby T. [near right] and Shep Cornell [far right], who held a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and, along with Ebby and Lois’ families, also summered in Manchester, Vermont. Lois described it as “an ecstatic time for us both.”

In 1938, Bill W. [left, late 1930s] and others have often claimed that the editing of the working manuscript for the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous (as well as the preceding draft chapters), resulted in scenes where members “fought, bled, and died” throughout one chapter after another. They assert that Bill was merely an umpire, recording the consensus as it developed. However, the reality was that the actual arguments and discussions mostly took place between Hank Parkhurst [near right], Fitz Mayo [far right], and Bill himself at the Honor Dealers headquarters in Newark, New Jersey.
    Correspondence between Bill and Ruth Hock [left], who, as Hank’s secretary, witnessed virtually everything from those early days, confirms this. While others may have contributed punctuation and some rewording, the main debates revolved around whether to include the word “God” in the Steps and to what extent. Fitz was deeply religious, Hank was adamantly atheistic, and Bill initially refused to make any changes to his Twelve Steps, which he believed were “inspired.”