Question submitted by Joe H., Orlando, FL.
"Did Bill W. write just the Twelve Steps or the
entire introduction to "How It Works" (Chapter 5), while lying in bed that
December evening in 1938?"
As is the case with much of A.A.'s history, the question cannot be
answered definitively because various people have written different accounts of the
events. I am going to quote the readily available literature on this subject and let you
decide for yourself what happened on that fateful December 1938 evening.
- Language of the Heart (Bill Wilson) - Reprint of July 1953
Grapevine Article
"A fragment of history: Origin of the Twelve Steps"
(pages: 200-201)
"I well remember the evening on which the Twelve Steps were
written. I was lying in bed quite dejected and suffering from one of my imaginary ulcer
attacks."...
"Having arrived at Chapter Five, it seemed high time to state
what our program really was. I remember running over in my mind the world-of-mouth phrases
then in current use. Jotting these down, they added up to the six named above."...
"At length I began to write on a cheap yellow tablet. I split
the world-of-mouth program up into smaller pieces, meanwhile enlarging its scope
considerably. Uninspired as I felt, I was surprised that in a short time, perhaps half an
hour, I had set down certain principles which, on being counted, turned out to be twelve
in number."...
So, in 1953, Bill stated he wrote the Twelve Steps in about half an
hour.
- Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age (Bill Wilson), Copyright: 1957
(pages: 160-161)
"I was in this anything-but-spiritual mood on the night when
the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous were written. I was sore and tired clear through.
I lay in bed at 182 Clinton Street with pencil in hand and with a tablet of scratch paper
on my knee."...
"This particular evening, as my mind ran over these
developments, it seemed to me that the program was still not definite enough."...
"Finally I started to write. I set out to draft more than six
steps; how many more I did not know. I relaxed and asked for guidance. With a speed that
was astonishing, considering my jangling emotions, I completed the first draft. It took
perhaps half an hour. The words kept right on coming. When I reached a stopping point, I
numbered the new steps. They added up to twelve. Somehow this number seemed
significant."...
In 1957, Bill again stated that he wrote only the Twelve Steps on
that December 1938 evening.
So much for Bill's own words. Let's see what the only other person
who was there at that time had to say. In Lois Remembers, Bill Wilson's wife wrote her
recollections of the event.
- Lois Remembers (Lois Wilson), Copyright: 1979
(page: 113)
"By this time Bill was ready to start the fifth chapter, 'How
It Works.' He was not feeling well, but the writing had to go on, so he took pad and
pencil to bed with him. How could he bring the program alive so that those at a distance,
reading the book, could apply it to themselves and perhaps get well? He had to be very
explicit. The six Oxford Group principles that the Fellowship had been using were not
definite enough. He must broaden and deepen their implications. He relaxed and asked for
guidance.
When he finished writing and reread what he had put down, he was
quite pleased. Twelve principles had developed--the Twelve Steps."
As Lois remembered it, Bill wrote only the Twelve Steps on that
December 1938 evening.
Now let's look at what Bill's biographer and other authors had to
say about the writing of the Twelve Steps.
- Bill W., Robert Thomsen, 1975
(pages: 281-282)
"The fall and winter raced by, the busiest and one of the most
productive times in Bill's life. His days were spent in Newark writing, his evenings at
meetings, reading aloud what he'd written, defending it, sometimes rewriting it."
"And so it went, strong but warm-hearted arguing, until they
reached Chapter Five. That was where Bill wanted to explain exactly how they worked. Ever
since he and Bob had tried to shape a program, their ideas had been based on Oxford Group
principles: first admitting they were powerless over alcohol, then making a moral
inventory, confessing their shortcomings to another, making amends wherever possible, and
finally praying for the power to carry out these concepts and to help other drunks.".
. .
"One night, late in December, stretched out on his bed at
Clinton Street, he set to work trying to be explicit, to break down the program into
smaller pieces and, if possible, broaden and deepen the spiritual implications of their
ideas. When he had finished, he counted the steps he had outlined; there were twelve in
all."
So Bill's biographer also stated that Bill wrote only Twelve Steps
that night.
- Not God, Ernie Kurtz, Copyright 1979
(pages: 69-70)
"Sprawling on his bed in an "anything but spiritual
mood" one evening, Wilson poised his yellow pencil over the school tablet propped
before him. Quickly, lest he block, he scrawled the words "How It Works" across
the top of the page..."
"...Quickly, before that thought could overwhelm him, Wilson
began to write, seeking to set down a theme of hope--something on which all could
agree."
'Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our
path.'
Bill's pencil began to fly over the paper, and his thoughts
continued to flow as he wrote a paragraph beginning:
-
"Half measures will avail you nothing. You stand at the turning
point. Throw yourself under God's protection and care with complete abandon. Now we think
you can take it! Here are the steps we took--our program of recovery:
- "We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives ha
become unmanageable.
- Came to believe that God could restore us to sanity.
- Made a decision to turn our wills and our lives over to the care of
God.
- Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
- Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact
nature of our wrongs.
- Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of
character.
- Humbly on our knees asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
- Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make
amends to them all.
- Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to
do so would injure them or others.
- Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly
admitted it.
- Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact
with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
- Having had a spiritual experience as the result of these steps, we
tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our
affairs.
Wilson paused. His intention had been to 'break up into smaller
pieces . . . our six chunks of truth . . . to be as clear and comprehensible as possible,
[leaving] not a single loophole through which the rationalizing alcoholic could wiggle
out." Almost idly, he began to number the new steps: "They added up to twelve.
Somehow this number seemed significant."
In 1979, Ernie Kurtz claimed that Bill wrote all of the Introduction
to "How it Works" plus the Twelve Steps in one evening.
In 1984, Mel B. et al., wrote Pass It On. In this book, Mel restated
Bill's original story.
- Pass It On, Anonymous (Mel B. et al) Copyright 1984.
(page: 197)
"Bill wrote the Twelve Steps, he said, while lying in bed at
182 Clinton Street with pencil in hand and a pad of yellow scratch paper on his knee. He
wrote them in bed, said Lois, not because he was really sick, but he wasn't felling well,
and if he could lie down, he did: 'He got into bed, that being the best place to think.'
As he started to write, he asked for guidance. And he relaxed. The
words began tumbling out with astonishing speed. He completed the first draft in about
half an hour, and then kept on writing until he felt he should stop and review what he had
written. Numbering the new steps, he found that they added up to twelve--a symbolic
number; he thought of the Twelve Apostles, and soon became convinced that the Society
should have twelve steps.
The very first draft of the Twelve Steps, as Bill wrote them that
night, had been lost. This is an approximate reconstruction of the way he first set them
down."
Reviewing these six articles, including two by the author and one by
his wife, Ernie Kurtz is the only one who claimed Bill wrote the Introduction plus the
Twelve Steps in one sitting.
Thanks for the question Joe!
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