A.A. History in November—day unknown

In 1934, Rev. Dr. Samuel M. Shoemaker III [right, c. 1940] wrote in his personal diary:

A significant thing… met Bill W――.

Note that this was the month before Bill W.’s final stay at Towns Hospital.

In 1934 [late], while staying at the Calvary Rescue Mission [left] in New York City, Edwin “Ebby” T. [near right] learned about the drinking problem of his old schoolmate, Bill W. [far right, late 1930s]. Ebby called Bill (or his wife Lois), who invited him over for dinner. During his visit, Ebby shared his recovery experience, “one alcoholic talking to another.” Although Bill, who was intoxicated at the time, and Ebby, who was sober, later had very different recollections of this key event, Lois’s brief account—not surprisingly—generally aligned with Bill’s.

      Earlier in the year, while in Vermont, Rowland Hazard, III [far left] and Francis Shepard “Shep” Cornell [near left] had introduced Ebby to the Oxford Group. Later, Rowland had taken Ebby to the Calvary Rescue Mission.

In 1935, John Henry Fitzhugh “Fitz” M. [right] was discharged from Towns Hospital and became the third person to get sober and join A.A. in New York, following Hank Parkhurst and Bill Ruddell. His story, “Our Southern Friend,” would appear in all four editions of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous.
    A “blue blood” from Maryland and the son of an Episcopalian minister, Fitz was said to be quite handsome, with chiseled features and the quiet, easy charm of the landed gentry. He embodied the qualities of a true Southern gentleman. Lois W. described Fitz as an impractical, lovable dreamer. His intellectual and scholarly traits gave him common ground with Bill W., who—like Fitz—was also a dreamer.
    Alcoholism may have run in his mother’s family. Although they never drank at home, Fitz discovered during his first drink in college that it alleviated his fears and sense of inferiority. He had attempted to enlist during World War I but could not pass the physical examination, which further contributed to his feelings of inadequacy. He had held a good job with a large corporation until the onset of the Great Depression. Subsequently, he had worked various jobs—as a traveling salesman, teacher, and farmer—but he couldn’t stop drinking. He had been drunk during significant moments: when his mother-in-law died, when his own mother died, and when his child was born. His wife had heard about Towns Hospital in New York City and urged him to go; he eventually agreed.

In 1937, the first challenge Bill W. [left, 1930s] and Hank P. [right] faced with the project of writing a book about A.A.—what would eventually become our Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous—was funding. The United States was still in the throes of the Great Depression; overseas, the specter of another world war loomed. The two men spent the entire month trying to raise funds for the book, to no avail.

In 1949, the shortened form of the Twelve Traditions was first printed in the A.A. Grapevine [right: cover]. Two changes in wording were made later: “primary spiritual aim” was changed to “primary purpose” in Tradition Six, and “principles above personalities” was changed to “principles before personalities” in Tradition Twelve.
    The entire Grapevine issue was dedicated to the Traditions in anticipation of the 1st International Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, in June 1950, where Bill W. would seek approval^* of these Traditions. In the same issue, in an article titled “A Suggestion for Thanksgiving,” Bill pointed readers to an article by Tom Y. (the immediate past editor of the Grapevine), “You Have a Stake in the Future of AA.” He suggested that Thanksgiving^† week be dedicated to discussing the Traditions and added, “If the groups respond positively to this idea, special material on the Traditions will be sent out from the General Service Office to all groups.”
    The replies were overwhelmingly in favor. As a result, November became known as Traditions Month and later as Gratitude Month.

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^*When Bill presented the Traditions for approval in Cleveland, he omitted Tradition 10. In Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, p. 102, Bill wrote Tradition 3 as “The only requirement for A.A. membership is a sincere desire to stop drinking” [emphasis added].
^†This reference clearly was taken to pertain to the United States Thanksgiving holiday. Might it not have been better for a U.S./Canada general service structure to alternate between this and the Canadian Thanksgiving holiday, on the second Monday in October?

In 1950, the Alcoholic Foundation in New York City published the pamphlet [left] titled “Your Third Legacy: Will You Accept It?” by Dr. Bob S. and Bill W. This pamphlet outlined the plans and procedures for the General Service Conference and included a “Temporary Conference Charter” with “Twelve Suggested Principles.” Below are edited excerpts from the pamphlet regarding elections.

    The Alcoholic Foundation invited one Conference delegate from each State and Canadian Province. Seven states with large AA populations were assigned additional delegates. Delegates were divided into two Panels so that half would be elected and half would rotate in odd and even numbered years. Panel 1 areas were asked to form a committee to organize an election assembly no later than March 1951. Bill W traveled across the US attending over two dozen assemblies electing area committees and Conference Delegates.
    Each group could select a Group Representative to attend and vote at the assembly. Group Representatives later came to be called “General Service Representatives” or GSRs. They placed an “A” next to their name in the assembly registration book to indicate they were “available to serve” as a Committeeman or Delegate. Nominations were not accepted from the floor and elections were by written ballot.
    The Area Delegate, Officers and Committeemen were chosen by election or by lot or combination of both for terms of two years and took office in April following their election.

1. To begin, the assembly decided by simple majority the number of Committeemen to be elected. Committeemen later came to be called “Committee Members” and then “District Committee Members” (or DCMs). Elections were decided by plurality. The first three Committeemen elected from the pool of those “willing to serve“ automatically became the Area Chair, Treasurer and Secretary in that order. The newly elected Chair immediately presided over the remainder of the assembly. All new Committeemen and Officers were automatically in nomination for Delegate (unless they declined).
2. For the Delegate election, the assembly was asked if it was willing to make a single attempt to elect a Delegate by written ballot. If 2/3 agreed, a ballot was cast. If the assembly declined to vote for a Delegate by written ballot, or if the single attempted vote failed to produce a 2/3 majority, the election was decided by lot (“from the hat”).
3. The Chair then opened the assembly for discussion. Questions on the General Service Conference, or instructions to be given to the Delegate, were brought to the floor. Initially, Delegates were both informed and instructed. The Chair closed the assembly after announcing the date and location where the Delegate would make a post-Conference report. The Secretary recorded the results and prepared a written report of the assembly proceedings.

In 2005 , the first Mongolian conference of the Eastern Region focused on the theme “From 2 Steps to 12 Steps.” The participants began to realize “we had to work with 12 steps,” a practice that was not widely adopted. Additionally, they were not adhering to the Twelve Tradition [left: Нэргүй архичид, Mongolian for “Alcoholics Anonymous;” right: Mongolian A.A. logo superimposed over the Mongolian flag].

November 29 in A.A. History

In 1945, Universal Pictures released The Lost Weekend  [left: poster; bottom: still from the film], a hard-hitting film about alcoholism adapted by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett from Charles R. Jackson’s novel of the same name [right: cover].
    Wilder was drawn to the material after working on an earlier film with a recovering alcoholic who relapsed during their collaboration. The Lost Weekend starred Ray Milland and Jane Wyman and became a sensation, winning four Oscars [left]: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actor. It was the first film to win both the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Palme d’Or (French: Golden Palm)  [right], the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival.^* Its realistic portrayal of alcoholism generated favorable publicity for Alcoholics Anonymous, prompting three Hollywood studios to offer A.A. as much as $100,000  [~$1.8 million in 2025]  for the rights to its own story. However, the Alcoholic Foundation declined to grant those rights.

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^*Only two other films have achieved this since: Marty (1955) and Parasite (2019).

November 28 in A.A. History

In 1934 [Most likely date], Ebby T. [left] visited Bill and Lois W. at their home at 182 Clinton St. in Brooklyn and shared his Oxford Group message with a drunken Bill. Their accounts of the encounter differ significantly. The more widely known version—from “Bill’s Story” in the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous—describes the two of them at Bill’s kitchen table [right, in its current location at Stepping Stones].

    Both accounts had Bill drinking while Ebby was sober. Bill recorded his version in mid-1938, 3½ years after the event. Below is an edited excerpt of Ebby’s account, recorded in 1958 (24 years later):

    I called him up one night. I didn’t get Bill but I got Lois… and told her what had happened to me. Lois said, “Why don’t you come over to dinner some night?”… and she mentioned a date. I said, “Fine.”
    I went over about half past five… The only person home was an old colored man named [Elias] Green, who I’d known for years; he’s been with the family, Lois’s family that is.… And he said, “They’re both out, both Mrs. and Mr. Wilson are out, but come in.” Pretty soon Bill appeared. He’d been drinking, but he wasn’t too bad.… He made the excuse that he to go get some ice cream and something else for supper. Of course, I knew what he was going after… I’d done it a million times myself.
    Then Lois came in. There was another girl invited because she lived upstairs in an apartment. So we all sat down for dinner. We had dinner then we all moved upstairs (in those houses back there in the East most living rooms are on the 2nd floor).
    After a little hemming and hawing, Lois said, “Well, let’s hear about yourself.” So I started in. I guess they got me wound up and I guess I talked to pretty near one o’clock in the morning.
    And I remember Bill said, “I’ll walk to the subway with you.”… On the way over he put his arm around my shoulder, just before I went on the subway, and said, “I don’t know whacha got, kid, but you got something, and I wanna get it.”

In 1943, at the invitation of Warden Clinton T. Duffy, Bill W. was the guest speaker at the A.A. meeting held at San Quentin State Prison [left: Duffy with A.A. members at San Quentin, c. 1942].

In 1998, the first A.A. group in Mongolia, called “Бид” (“We”), opened its doors with the participation of Drs. O. Byambasuren and Z. Tuya from the Centre for Psychiatry and Narcology [right: Alcoholics Anonymous in Mongolian].

November 27 in A.A. History

In 1939, Ohio’s Cleveland Plain Dealer published an unsigned article [left] titled “Watches Religion Save Alcoholics,” which reported on and quoted extensively from a sermon delivered the previous day by Rev. Dilworth Lupton [near right] at the First Unitarian Church [far right]. The sermon was based on Lupton’s experience with a “Mr. X” Among many details, the article said, “Lupton noted that there was room in A.A. for all creeds, through the concept of God as ‘a Power greater than ourselves.’ Such an attitude ‘displays nothing short of genius,’ he said.”

    In reality, Mr. X was Clarence S. [left], who would start the first A.A. group in Cleveland the following year.  While Clarence was still drinking, his wife Dorothy [right] had often pleaded with Lupton to intervene and talk to Clarence. Lupton did so on several occasions, but Clarence was unable and unwilling to stop drinking. Eventually, Lupton gave up and advised Dorothy to turn her husband’s problem over to God. She responded that was exactly what she had done when she sought his help. However, Lupton explained that there was nothing more to be done and that all that was left was prayer—lots of prayer.

    After Clarence sobered up in Akron, Ohio, Dorothy returned to Rev. Lupton, this time to invite him to see the miraculous “new cure” in action. Lupton replied that as far as he was concerned, as long as this “cure” was associated with the Oxford Group, it didn’t stand a chance, and he couldn’t be a part of it. “Nothing good could come out of the Oxford Group,” he said.
    After the Cleveland A.A. Group split from the Oxford Group, Dorothy approached Rev. Lupton once more, bringing A.A.’s Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, and the names of some Roman Catholic members. In 1954, Dorothy reflected on that visit:

    I felt that now we had fallen away from Akron, now there was no Oxford Group, Dr. Lupton should be interested. So I went back to him and said we were no longer an Oxford Group, and asked him to please come to a meeting. 
     He read it [the Big Book], and he said that he would definitely come to one of our meetings. He did, and he was so impressed that he said, “Dorothy, you go back to the Plain Dealer and you tell them that I’m going to preach on A.A.” 
    That was for publicity. He was one of the really big Protestant ministers in Cleveland, and what he said was good copy.

    As a result of the Plain Dealer article, the Cleveland Group was inundated with calls and inquiries. In 1954, Dorothy recalled, “within… about two weeks, our meetings grew from about 15 to 100.” In 1940, Dorothy wrote to Ruth Hock and Hank P. about the aftermath:

    A few sourpusses pinned Clarence to the cross in no uncertain fashion last night, exploiting “paid publicity, profit for the book, liar,” and whatnot. It hurt, I know, as they were all people he had helped. But how it is making him grow!

    Clarence himself said:

    When the [Plain Dealer] article appeared, it stirred up a hornet’s nest It wasn’t great literature, but it had a tremendous effect. Someone said, This guy is a reporter. He’s gonna put our names in the paper! 
    “No” I said, “he's one of us—a rummy.” 
    “Yeah, he's a rummy all right, but he's a newspaperman.” 
    It didn't make any difference. They were against it.

    In 1977, Warren C. [left] recalled:

    There was hell to pay when those stories broke. I mean, they really lacerated him [Clarence]. Of course, it was the greatest move that was ever made for A.A. [In Cleveland] A.A. started in a riot. It grows in riots, We got upset by the Plain Dealer business, We thought Clarence was going to ‘get money,’ and voted him out of the group. He took others with him and started another group.

November 26 in A.A. History

In 1895, William G. “Bill” W. [left, at 3 months] was born to Emily G. W. [near right, 1905] Gilman B. [far right] and at 3 a.m. on a wintry day in East Dorset, Vermont, behind the bar of the W―― House [far right, c. 1920s–50s, when it was known as Mt Æolus Inn], a village hotel run by his paternal grandmother, Helen Elizabeth Barrows W. [near right].

    The night before, Emily’s pain had driven her from the kitchen to the north parlor. She lay on a couch, trying to breathe and writhing as contractions tore through her. In and out of consciousness, she screamed and cried out as midnight passed. The midwife and Emily’s mother, Ella Brock Griffith [left], tried to comfort her.

    Outside, Mark Whalon [left: late in life], whom Bill would later call his only close local friend, and a group of neighborhood boys gathered on the porch to listen to Emily’s screams, a testament to the strangeness of the adult world. Later, Emily would say that Bill’s birth had nearly killed her.

In 1918, Francis “Barry” L., Jr. [right, as a young man] was born in Timpson, Texas, to Lenora Fenn and Francis Leach, Sr. Raised in Weatherford, Texas, he was the oldest of four boys.
    In 1944, he would move to New York City, where he would get sober in 1945. He became one of the first openly gay members of Alcoholics Anonymous and would play a crucial role in discussions about inclusivity in A.A., particularly regarding LGBTQ+ members. He would also be involved in early conversations about creating special meetings for gay men in 1945.
    Barry would write both Living Sober [left: cover, 1st ed. 1st printing] (1975) and the pamphlet “Do You Think You're Different?” [right: 1st printing] (1976), which would include two stories about gay experiences. He also co-authored Lois’s W.'s memoir Lois Remembers. He would work as a staff writer at the General Service Office of A.A., record and report on many of the early General Service Conference final reports, and also contribute to the A.A. Grapevine. Furthermore, he would become a trusted friend of both Bill and Lois W., growing particularly close to Lois after Bill's death in 1971.

    In 1978, Lois gifted Barry a copy of the original manuscript [left: first page] of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous. In 1979, Barry would sign a notarized letter gifting the manuscript to A.A. World Services while retaining possession until his death, a fact he would discuss publicly in the months leading up to his death in 1985.

In 1939, at the First Unitarian Church located at Euclid Ave. and E. 82nd St. in Cleveland, Ohio, Rev. Dilworth Lupton [right] delivered a sermon titled “Mr. X and Alcoholics Anonymous.” The sermon centered on Mr. X, an alcoholic (actually Clarence S. [left]), whom he had seen recover from alcoholism. It would later be reprinted in the Cleveland Plain Dealer and would become one of A.A.’s first pamphlets.

In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced that gasoline rationing would begin four days later, on December 1, to conserve rubber (not gasoline). This measure would significantly reduce the number of 12th Step calls A.A. members could make. The following day, a headline  [left] on page 1 of The New York Times would read “Full ‘Gas’ Rationing Dec. 1 Ordered by the President.” According to the article, President Roosevelt served notice that night that… 

     the government… would begin the nation-wide rationing of gasoline to conserve rubber on Dec. 1, as scheduled [right: gasoline ration card 1942].

In 1965, Nancy M.-O. [left], the founder and original moderator of A.A. History Lovers on Yahoo Groups, got sober and joined A.A.

November 25 in A.A. History

In 1940, Dave W., who would later become one of the founding members of A.A. in Seattle, Washington, discovered that the national secretary at the Alcoholic Foundation, with whom he had been corresponding—R. Hock [right]—was a woman! He chose to keep this information from the other men he was working with.

In 1947, Mrs. Marty M. [left, 1955] spoke to the Economic Club of Detroit [below right: logo]—as well as a radio audience—about the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism (NCEA) and about Alcoholics Anonymous itself. She began by saying,

    I stand before you here today on behalf of two groups. One group is made of free people, free because they have knowledge. The other group is made up of prisoners, prisoners of their condition, held prisoners by ignorance and fear.
    The first group is that whom I officially represent, the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism, made up of men and women of science and medicine of the clergy and of the arts, of business and of public life who are aware of the nature of this problem and who are determined to do something about it.
    They have done me the honor of appointing me Executive Director of that group and have made me the spokesman for their program.
    The other group has not appointed me. The other group is not organized. It frequently does not know there is a group.
    These prisoners that I spoke of are the alcoholics of America, three million strong.
    Many of them are unaware of their own condition; are unaware of its nature; and are unaware that there is anything whatsoever to do about it.
    They did not need to appoint men; I belong to that group. I myself shared their condition of being a prisoner until the truth made me free.

November 24 in A.A. History

In 1895, John Paul S. [right], commonly known as Paul, was born to Emma Savercool and Charles S. in Pennsylvania, likely near Scranton, where he was christened on 29 December. He would meet Dr. Bob S. in January 1936 and sober up on 2 July 1936. His story, “Truth Freed Me!” would appear in the first edition of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous.

In 1939, Mrs. J. J. Stewart of Seattle, Washington [left: skyline, 1938], whose husband was an alcoholic, wrote to the Alcoholic Foundation, stating, “[W]e have the book Alcoholics Anonymous and have read it.” She then inquired about the presence of any A.A. unit in Seattle. Almost three months later, the reply suggested she reach out to “the growing Fellowships in San Francisco and Los Angeles.” Mrs. Stewart’s letter marked Seattle’s first contact with A.A., and she would eventually play a role in establishing the city’s first A.A. group, although her specific contribution remains unclear.

In 1942, Rev. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick [right] was the speaker at the 8th anniversary dinner of the Manhattan A.A. group. In 1939, he had written the first favorable review of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, for Religious Digest, although it was first published by the Alcoholic Foundation in April 1939. 

In 1976, Elise Valentine Shaw, 85, died [left: memorial service announcement, The Bridgeport (CT) Post, 26 Nov 1976 ]. She was Lois W.’s oldest and closest friend (since childhood); the widow of Bill W.’s Wall Street patron, Frank Shaw; and the matron of honor at Bill and Lois W.’s wedding.