In our text we have shown the alcoholic how he can recover but we realize that many will want to write us directly.
To receive these inquiries, to administer royalties from this book and such other funds as may come to hand, a Trust has been created known as The Alcoholic Foundation. Three Trustees are members of Alcoholics Anonymous, the other four are well-known business and professional men who have volunteered their services. The Trust states these four (who are not of Alcoholics Anonymous) or their successors, shall always constitute a majority of the Board of Trustees.
We must frankly state however, that under present conditions, we may be unable to reply to all inquiries, as our members, in their spare time, will attend to most of the correspondence. Nevertheless we shall strenuously attempt to communicate with those men and women who are able to report that they are staying sober and working with other alcoholics. Once we have such an active nucleus, we can then refer to them those inquiries which originate in their respe ctive localities. Starting with small but active centers created in this fashion, we are confident that fellowships will spring up and grow very much as they have among us. Meanwhile, we hope the Foundation will become more useful to all.
The Alcoholic Foundation is our only agency of its kind. We have agreed that all business engagements touching on our alcoholic work shall have the approval of its trustees. People who state they represent The Alcoholic Foundation should be asked for credentials and if unsatisfactory, these ought to be checked with the Foundation at once. We welcome inquiry by scientific, medical and religious societies.
This volume is published by the Works Publishing Company, organized and financed mostly by small donations of our members. This company donates the customary royalties from each copy of Alcoholics Anonymous to The Alcoholic Foundation.
To order this book, send your check or money order for $3.50 to:
The material on this web page is a transcript of what the Big Book looked like before it was ever printed. The book's author -- Bill W. -- gave copies of this manuscript to friends and colleagues to get their feedback. You will find significant differences between this version and the book you're probably familiar with.
If you are trying to learn about Alcoholics Anonymous, this section is not the place you want to be. The manuscript really is different from the printed version of the Big Book. The printed version is much better. The material on the web page is provided for historical and research purposes.
The manuscript is great for scholars because it gives them insight into what kinds of changes took place during our Fellowship's early days. The manuscript isn't on-line as a recovery tool. You'll do much better with the printed version, which is also available on-line here.
This electronic transcript is fairly accurate. When there was a misspelled word in the manuscript, it was left misspelled in this on-line version.