August 8 in A.A. History

1879: Robert Holbrook (later “Dr. Bob”) S. [near right, 1898] was born in the front bedroom of a large, nineteenth-century clapboard house at 20^* Summer Street in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. His parents were Susan A. Holbrook and Judge Walter Perrin S. [far right].

He had a much older foster sister, Amanda Northrop [left],^† who later became a history professor at Hunter College in New York City.

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^*Later renumbered to be 297 Summer Street.

^†Born in 1858, her father died in 1864. Just 18 days short of her 22nd birthday, the 1880 U.S. Census shows her living in Fairfield, Vermont with her mother, who died 4 months later. Presumably this resulted in her being put up for a time as a foster child—beginning no later than 1891—with Judge Walter and Susan S.

1942: The U.S. Army approved Clarence Snyder’s application to enroll in its Volunteer Officers Candidate Program. Earlier that summer, Clarence [right, in uniform] had decided it was time to enlist and had contacted the Selective Service Board to apply.

1944: Ed B.,^* who had previously been in A.A. but had returned to drinking, woke up in the basement of a small community hospital. Once he’d sobered up, Dr. Bob S. came to see him and asked, “What happened, Ed?” Ed later recalled telling him that he’d found himself in a bar with no idea how he’d gotten there. At that, Dr. Bob rose from his chair, pointed a finger at him, and delivered a lecture on the importance of honesty, saying in part:

You’re taking up my time, and I have better ways to spend it than to talk to you. If I were you, I’d go out and get drunk and stay drunk until I made up my mind what I wanted to do. As far as I’m concerned, you stink!

Ed was furious, but later that night he called Dr. Bob’s wife, Anne. After that call, he never drank again. He went on to become editor of the Akron Intergroup News.

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^*This may well be the Ed B. of Akron, Ohio, who was A.A. #59, and whose original sobriety date was in January 1938.

1974: H. Alfred “Al” S. [far left] wrote to Nell Wing [near left] about an article on Anne S., Dr. Bob’s wife, that he had inadvertently taken home 24 years earlier [right: letter].

August in A.A. History—day unknown

1946: The physical dimensions of the 10th printing of the 1st edition of Alcoholics Anonymous were changed to a more conventional size, reducing them from 9 3/16" × 6" to 8 ½" × 5 ⅝" [left: relative sizes]. Despite this change, it continued to be called the “Big Book.”

1947: In his essay for the A.A. Grapevine [right: pp. 3, 8] titled “Last Seven Years Have Made A.A. Self-Supporting,” Bill W. wrote:

Two years ago the [Alcoholic Foundation] Trustees set aside, out of A.A. book funds, a sum which enabled my wife [Lois] and me to pay off the mortgage on our home and make some needed improvements. The Foundation also granted Dr. Bob Smith and me each a royalty of 10% on the book Alcoholics Anonymous, our only income from A.A. sources. We are both very comfortable and deeply grateful.

1948: The Grapevine announced [left: p. 1, p. 16] that, beginning the following month, the magazine would shift to a 32-page format measuring 5½"×7½", replacing its current 16-page, 8½"×11" size [right: old vs new size].