July 18 in A.A. History

1918: [19th?] Bill W. sailed from Boston, Massachusetts, to New York City Harbor, where he boarded the H.M.T. (Hired Military Transport) Lancashire [right] in Hoboken, New Jersey. The Lancashire would transport Bill and his unit to England. After a two-week quarantine in Winchester due to a minor epidemic, they would be sent to France, where they would serve behind the lines for the remainder of the Great War (World War I), which would end less than four months later.

1938: Dr. Esther L. Richards [left] of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, responded very positively to the two-chapter prospectus Bill W. sent her for what would eventually become the Big Book. In her reply [right], she advised, “I think you should get an A No. 1 physician who has a wide knowledge of the alcoholic’s medical and social problem to write an introduction…” Within a few days, Dr. William D. Silkworth would write the “To Whom It May Concern” letter that would introduce “The Doctor’s Opinion” in the book. Dr. Richards’ letter clearly indicates that Bill was already using the term “Alcoholics Anonymous” as both the working title of the book and the name of the Fellowship.

1940: Virginia’s Richmond Times-Dispatch published Pat Jones’s article “‘Alcoholics Anonymous’ Organizes in Richmond for Attack on Common Enemy,” subtitled “‘It Changed Me From a Monkey Into a Man’ Says One Member.” The article [left] began:

A national organization with no paid officers, no dues, no membership rolls, has gained a nucleus in Richmond and, in September, will start earnestly upon its self-appointed task of curing alcoholics who actually want to be cured.

1965: Frank B. Amos, [near right], 83, died in Anderson, Indiana. His obituary [far right] in The New York Times referred to him as “one of the five original co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous.” However, he was actually one of the five original Class A (non-alcoholic) Trustees of the Alcoholic Foundation, a trusted associate of the Rockefellers, and a close friend of A.A. He was buried in Northwood Cemetery in Cambridge, Ohio.

A.A. History—month & day unknown

1939: [Fall?] Kaye M, a non-alcoholic, divorced her alcoholic husband, Ty, in the fall. At the time, Ty was in Akron, Ohio, attempting to get sober. Kaye then traveled to New York City to meet Bill W.

Two years prior to their divorce, Ty had achieved two years of sobriety, and he and Kaye had moved from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Los Angeles, California. However, Ty relapsed in Los Angeles, His attorney in Cleveland, Ohio, sent him a copy of the multilith manuscript of Alcoholics Anonymous, which Bill W. had provided. Though deeply impressed by the manuscript, Ty continued to drink. Kaye, who did not read the manuscript herself, was moved by her husband’s reaction and wired the Alcoholic Foundation for help.

When informed that the nearest A.A. meeting to Los Angeles was in Akron, Ohio, Kaye brought Ty there and sought assistance from Dr. Bob S. and Wallace “Wally” G.

Upon meeting Bill in New York City, Kaye was surprised when he focused not on Ty’s issues, but on her own, stating that she was “spiritually bankrupt.” She later recalled:

Bill told me that I had been an extremely bad wife because I had broken all his falls for him and never let him hit bottom.

Bill gave Kaye a copy of the newly published Alcoholics Anonymous. While in New York, Kaye attended her first A.A. meeting, which significantly affected her. Saying goodbye to Bill, she declared:

I’m going home to Los Angeles, and if Ty can stay sober on these twelve steps of yours for six months, I’m going to beat the drum for Alcoholics Anonymous up and down the state of California, I swear to God.

Kaye returned home—without Ty—by freighter, a journey that likely took two to three weeks. She used this time to read the Big Book [right: freighter passing through the Panama Canal, 1939].