The Points of Light Foundation offers biographical information on many people, including A.A.'s Co-Founders.

Robert Smith & William Wilson

"United in their search for sobriety, Dr. Bob and Bill W. established
Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935. This fellowship allows men and women to share with one another their experience, strength, and hope in order to carry the message of recovery to alcoholics seeking help."

"It was only a matter of being willing to believe in a power greater than myself. Nothing more was required for me to make my beginning."

The only really valuable AA Literature is the Big Book and perhaps Conference-Approved Literature?

What about this? Here's a fellow who has published papers and books that get my attention after a brief visit to this site.

Glenn F. Chesnut, an ordained United Methodist minister, completed his bachelor of divinity degree at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, then went to Oxford University where he earned a doctorate in theology as a Fulbright scholar. He has won a Prix de Rome in Classics and recognition from the American Society of Church History for his work on Christianity and paganism in the early Greco-Roman world.

He taught at the University of Virginia and Boston University, and is now Professor Emeritus of History and Religious Studies at Indiana University (South Bend).

These things strike me as remarkable: (1) I can understand his writing, and (2) this fellow seems to have a genuine interest in the Fellowship. Given his education, experience and writing skill, this man has something to share with us!

Here's a good way to find quality websites addressing issues of interest to members of Alcoholics Anonymous.

With all the earnestness at my command, I urge you to visit the website of the The Hindsfoot Foundation, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1993 for the publication of materials on the history and theory of alcoholism treatment and the moral and spiritual dimensions of recovery.

My initial impression: awesome!

On Bill Wilson:
From the rubble of a wasted life, he overcame alcoholism and founded the 12-step program that has helped millions of others do the same
By SUSAN CHEEVER

Monday, June 14, 1999
Second Lieut. Bill Wilson didn't think twice when the first butler he had ever seen offered him a drink. The 22-year-old soldier didn't think about how alcohol had destroyed his family. He didn't think about the Yankee temperance movement of his childhood or his loving fiance Lois Burnham or his emerging talent for leadership. He didn't think about anything at all. "I had found the elixir of life," he wrote. Wilson's last drink, 17 years later, when alcohol had destroyed his health and his career, precipitated an epiphany that would change his life and the lives of millions of other alcoholics. Incarcerated for the fourth time at Manhattan's Towns Hospital in 1934, Wilson had a spiritual awakening — a flash of white light, a liberating awareness of God — that led to the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous and Wilson's revolutionary 12-step program, the successful remedy for alcoholism. The 12 steps have also generated successful programs for eating disorders, gambling, narcotics, debting, sex addiction and people affected by others' addictions. Aldous Huxley called him "the greatest social architect of our century."

This link leads to a page on a website that presents the story of Clarence S., the man who carried the AA message to Cleveland from Dr. Bob in Akron before the Big Book was published.

Chapter Three (which is broken into several fascinating segments) shows how a desperate man, through a serendipitous chain of events, got hooked up with Dr. Bob. It's funny now, but I bet it was terrifying for Clarence.

You'll learn about the Oxford Group, how it worked, how Dr. Bob was helping others, and how Clarence was dedicated to Step 12 and the 5th Tradition is a way that is unimaginable to most AAs nowadays.

The Big Book was written to preserve the way the Founders did it. Too many of us don't bother to read it carefully, then apply its lessons (without mixing in a bunch of treatment center psycho-bable). Clarence's story gives us another clear recollection of "how it works."

I wish this book were still in print. It's not, but, thanks to this site, you can download it.

Please consider making a 7th Tradition contribution to their site.

In the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous, Appendix II - Spiritual Experience (4th ed. pg. 568), contains a now-famous quote attributed to Herbert Spencer:

“There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance — that principle is contempt prior to investigation.”

A recent article entitled "The Survival of a Fitting Quotation" By Michael StGeorge may be of great interest to those who have heard of doubt that Herbert Spencer ever said or wrote that now-famous quote published in twenty million copies of Alcoholics Anonymous. See http://www.geocities.com/fitquotation/ for the web version of the article.

For some students of the Big Book, the attribution of the quote is not so important as the message. Still, it's likely to help you win a round of Trivial Pursuit at your next meeting after the meeting.

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) was a British philosopher who attempted to apply the theory of evolution to philosophy and ethics in his series Synthetic Philosophy (1855-1893).

A website for those interested in the history of Alcoholics Anonymous.

To visit the site, click here: http://silkworth.net/index1024.html

This website does a wonderful job of supplementing the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous and the conference-approved literature of AA, including "Pass it On" and "Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers".

You can invest hours reading this wonderful collection of facts and good ideas. When you invest something, you reasonably expect more in return than what you committed -- in this case, a few hours invested here can mean a great deal to the quality of your life.