Thoughts on the First Three Pages of “How It Works”

By this time in the writing process, I can envision Bill thinking: “I’ve thoroughly reviewed ‘the problem’ in the ‘Doctor’s Opinion,” Chapter One (Bill’s Story) and part of Chapter Two (There Is A Solution). I’ve told them what’s going to happen if they don’t find ‘the Solution” in Chapter Three (More About ). I gave them some ‘new ideas” so they might be more able to ‘make a decision” regarding ‘that Power which is greater than human power” in Chapter Four (We Agnostics). So – I’ve done all the preliminary work – it’s time to detail ‘the Program of Action.”

And so he sets out to write what is perhaps the most significant pattern for living since the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount in Chapter Five (How It Works). According to Dr. Bob,“…I think it’s one of the great instances of direct (divine) inspiration…in human history.” (WTBB, pg. 443 footnote)

“It was now realized that we had enough background and window-dressing material, and that at this point we would have to tell how our program for recovery from alcoholism really worked. The backbone of the book would have to be fitted in right here.” ( Comes of Age, publ. 1957, pg. 159 bottom).

So – that was the assignment. But what was the environment – the culture - of this as yet unnamed fledgling society? What exactly was “the program” they were following at that time? “Since Ebby's visit to me in the fall of 1934 we had gradually evolved what we called 'the word-of-mouth program.' Most of the basic ideas had come from the Oxford Groups, William James, and Dr. Silkworth. Though subject to considerable variation, it all boiled down into a pretty consistent procedure which comprised six steps. These were approximately as follows: 1. We admitted that we were licked, that we were powerless over alcohol. 2. We made a moral inventory of our defects or sins. 3. We confessed or shared our shortcomings with another person in confidence. 4. We made restitution to all those we had harmed by our drinking. 5. We tried to help other alcoholics, with no thought of reward in money or prestige. 6. We prayed to whatever God we thought there was for power to practice these precepts.

This was the substance of what, by the fall of 1938, we were telling newcomers.” (Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, publ. 1957, pg. 160)

In the Big Book (“He Sold Himself Short” which first appeared in the Second Edition published in 1955), Earl Treat (who helped form the first A.A. group in Chicago) gives the Akron version of “the Six-Step program as it was at that time” (1937):

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1. Complete deflation. 2. Dependence and guidance from a . 3. Moral inventory. 4. Confession. 5. Restitution. 6. Continued work with other alcoholics.

In a July 1953 Grapevine article titled "A Fragment of History: Origin of the Twelve Steps" (reproduced in The Language of the Heart, publ. 1953, pg. 200) Bill wrote:

"During the next three years after Dr Bob's recovery our growing groups at Akron, New York and Cleveland evolved the so-called word-of-mouth program of our pioneering time. As we commenced to form a society separate from the , we began to state our principles something like this:

1. We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol. 2. We got honest with ourselves. 3. We got honest with another person, in confidence. 4. We made amends for harms done others. 5. We worked with other alcoholics without demand for prestige or money. 6. We prayed to God to help us to do these things as best we could.

…these principles were advocated according to the whim or liking of each of us…this was the gist of our message to incoming alcoholics up to 1939”

In using terms like “word of mouth,” “the gist,” “subject to considerable variation,” “approximately”, “something like this” and “according to the whim or liking of each of us” it was clear that the need for consistency was critical before the “program” became distorted and diluted to the point of being unrecognizable.

So – his “assignment” then was to state the program in writing – no more “word of mouth” interpretation.

So let’s look at how he wrote the first three pages of “How It Works”, and what the expectations and reactions of the fellowship were.

“Bill wrote the Twelve Steps…while lying in bed at 182 Clinton Street with pencil in hand and pad of yellow scratch paper on his knee.” (Pass It On, Publ. 1984, pg. 197 bottom)

In The Language of the Heart: A Fragment of History: Origin of the Twelve Steps (Publ. 1953, pg.200-201), Bill wrote: “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. Four chapters of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous, had been roughed out and read [email protected] hhe 28 August 2020 2 Thoughts on the First Three Pages of “How It Works” in meetings at Akron and New York. We quickly found that everybody wanted to be an author. The hassles as to what should go into our new book were terrific. For example, some wanted a purely psychological book…A few, led by our wonderful southern friend, Fitz M., wanted a fairly religious book infused with some of the dogma we had picked up from the churches and missions which had tried to help us. The louder these arguments, the more I felt in the middle. It appeared that I wasn't going to be the author at all. I was only going to be an umpire who would decide the contents of the book. “Having arrived at Chapter Five, it seemed high time to state what our program really was. I remember running over in my mind the word- of-mouth phrases then in current use. Jotting these down, they added up to the six named above. Then came the idea that our program ought to be more accurately and clearly stated. Distant readers have a precise set of principles. Knowing the alcoholic's ability to rationalize, something airtight would have to be written. We couldn't let the reader wiggle out anywhere. Besides, a more complete statement would help in the chapters to come where we would need to show exactly how the recovery program ought to be worked.”

In Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, (Publ. 1957, pg. 161-162), Bill said: “This particular evening, as my mind ran over these developments, it seemed to me that the program was still not definite enough….our literature would have to be as clear and comprehensive as possible. Our steps would have to be more explicit. There must not be a single loophole through which the rationalizing alcoholic could wiggle out…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… I completed the first draft. It took perhaps half an hour. The words kept right on coming. At this moment a couple of late callers arrived. One of them was …Howard A….with a newcomer.… I was greatly pleased with what I had written, and I read them the new version of the program, now the "Twelve Steps. Howard and his friend reacted violently. "Why Twelve steps?" "You’ve got too much God in these steps; you will scare people away." And, "What do you mean by getting those drunks down 'on their knees' when they ask to have all their shortcomings removed?" And, "Who wants all their shortcomings removed, anyhow?" “You’ve got to tone it down. It's too stiff. The average alcoholic just won't buy it the way it stands. “I sprang to the defense of the new creation, every single word of it. A terrific discussion developed which cooled only when Lois turned up a couple of hours later. "Why don't you forget about it for awhile," she said, "and have a cup of coffee?" This we did.”

However, upon awakening the next day, Bill was just as committed to this “new creation” and set out to present it to the rest of the fellowship. And – that’s when the crap hit the fan!

“What the hell is this?” they said. “God gave man Ten Commandments – now you’ve got twelve – and six had been quite sufficient for us until now.”

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“This sounds too much like the Oxford Group absolutes.” “You’re giving people directions and you don’t have the right to tell anybody what they have to do.” Some wanted more Christian doctrine. Some wanted more use of the word “God”. Others wanted the word “God” deleted from the book entirely. One group wanted a more psychological, rather than spiritual approach. And Bill this… and Bill that…. And this quarreling almost destroyed the entire fellowship as well as the book project.

“As the one who had to do the writing, I was caught squarely in the middle of this arguing….For a while it looked as if we would bog down into permanent disagreement. Despairing of satisfying everyone, I finally asked that I might be the final judge of what the book said. Seeing that we would get nowhere without such a point of decision, (they) agreed.” (according to Bill in Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, Publ. 1957, pg. 163-4).

So Bill agreed to some modifications in the first three pages of How It Works. And it is a great testament to Bill’s abilities as a teacher – and salesman – that most of what he originally wrote that night, before Howard and the newcomer paid him a visit, remained intact!

But from that point onward, he was to be the final arbiter of what went into the book.

HOWEVER……

That’s what Bill Wilson wants us to believe and this all makes for a great story, but as we’ll see, the truth was far more complicated than this simplified dramatic explanation.

First, regarding the contentious and “many voices” atmosphere of the fellowship at the time: In the book “Writing the Big Book,“ (referred to as “WTBB” from this point on) Bill Schaberg states: “Akron’s response, right up until the middle of November (of 1938 – the book was published five months later in April 1939) was simply to say they liked the …chapters already sent to them. Given this disappointing lack of response, Bill complained to Dr. Bob that he wished he “would be more critical…for I think they can be improved a lot,” and he elsewhere noted that despite the fact each of these chapters was sent to Ohio “for debate and inspection,” Dr. Bob never passed them around very much, merely writing me saying he thought they were all right. “Things in New York were a bit different, but not different enough to generate any kind of serious criticism for what Bill had written so far. “I find it is pretty hard,” he told Bob in early November, “to get people to voice their real opinions, as they are too much afraid of hurting (my) feelings.” Whatever reasons there might be for the New York reticence, the result was that Wilson was writing in a virtual vacuum with little substantive feedback.” (WTBB, pg. 369)

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“As Ruth Hock (Bill’s secretary) later noted, the major changes made to the Steps and the book were “fought out in the office (Honors Dealers, Newark, New Jersey) when Bill and Hank and Fitz and I were present. And consistently claimed it was the trio of Bill Wilson, Hank Parkhurst and Fitz Mayo who ran A.A. during those early days and Ruth’s testimony about those arguments in Newark certainly lends some credibility to that observation.” (WTBB, pg. 461) “It is perfectly reasonable to wonder where this popular and persistent creation story of a (contentious) elaborate collaborative writing process for the text of the Big Book came from. “One reason for this duplicity was the need to bolster the illusion that the book was a report of the collective experience of “one hundred men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state” rather than being just a condensed version of Wilson’s personal experiences and observations during the first four years of his sobriety which, for the most part, is what it was. The power of the communal experience, rather than that of any one individual, was increasingly recognized as one of the most important parts of the message promoted by AA, and it was therefore vitally important that the story of the book’s origins be presented as a participatory group effort rather than the work of just one man. “In addition to this larger purpose, Bill had an important personal reason for making light of his (sole) authorship of the Big Book. As (this) new method of recovery spread across the country, Wilson grew increasingly uncomfortable with the mantle of sanctity that was constantly being foisted off onto him by these new groups and members. Knowing how much this kind of hero worship played directly into his desire to be “the number one man,” Bill realized he needed to put a number of serious checks on his ego, and one of the ways he did this was to regularly downplay his central importance in the writing of the book.” (WTBB, pg. 370)

So then, how were the first few pages of How It Works actually written? “There are, unfortunately, no primary documents mentioning the actual writing of the steps. So now, at arguably the single most significant moment in the entire story, any historical account must rely solely on the stories Bill Wilson told…about how he wrote the Twelve Steps. There is not one document preserved from December 1938 (or from the months immediately after that) to either confirm or contradict his version of what happened. It is simply not mentioned. Compounding the problem, and raising serious suspicion about Bill’s absolute accuracy here, is the fact that the first recorded instance of him telling the well- known story appears in a letter he wrote to (Journalist) Jack Alexander on December 13, 1949, a full eleven years after the event. How so much time could have elapsed without this important story being told sooner is a mystery. “This is truly problematic – as Bill Wilson was no great respecter of the actual facts when it came to A.A. history. When he wrote or talked, his purpose was not to deliver a precisely accurate accounting of what had actually happened. Whenever inconvenient or messy details were encountered, Bill would modify them (sometimes significantly) and then streamline the whole story for the dramatic impact he felt was necessary to underline the specific moral or inspirational message he was trying to deliver to his audience.

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“Historians who rely on Bill’s talks or writings for reliable historical information do so at their own peril. In relation to this particular event – the day he first formulated and wrote down the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous – we have no supporting contemporary documents whatsoever to rely on for confirmation or contradiction. There is only Bill’s version of the story” (WTBB, pgs. 440-441)

“There is a very different story about how Bill wrote the Twelve Steps, one he told almost two full years before he rolled out the story of being inspired to break down an existing Six Step program. Paul Kirby Hennessy accompanied Bill and Lois on a train ride from New York City to Washington D.C. and according to him, the conversation (on the train) naturally veered toward the Twelve Steps. In a memo dated October 12, 1948, Hennessy states “Bill went on to explain how the pioneers in A.A. fought, thought – and prayed – their way to recovery. In the effort to rehabilitate himself, the alcoholic was obliged: 1. To admit he was powerless over alcohol 2. To make an inventory of his own character 3. To put trust in God 4. To work with other alcoholics” --- As it stood, this program needed clarification, so Bill sat and began to figure out the various phases of his own recovery. Setting them down on paper, he found there were twelve separate and distinct steps.” “According to this earliest available version of the story (later confirmed by Wilson), the Twelve Steps weren’t the result of a sudden inspirational expansion of the fellowship’s collective experience (“the Six Steps which had gradually evolved since Ebby’s 1934 visit’), but rather a…reformulation of the most important elements Bill could identify in the different actions he himself had taken on the road to sobriety. “The creation of the Twelve Steps based on Wilson’s own experience is, in fact, a much more likely scenario than the later claim of an inspired elaboration of the supposed Six Steps. In Ernest Kurtz’s “Not-God” (pg. 331), he says that the exact formulation of these six-steps was contrived by Wilson only as he set out to record the history (of AA) in “Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age” (publ. June 1957). (WTBB, pgs 444-445)

“Questioning Wilson’s veracity on this particular story naturally begs another question. Why would he…change his 1948 (train-story) account of the Four Steps into the Six Step stories he later told? Why not just continue with the story Paul Hennessy related? The most plausible explanation is that this change was another one of Wilson’s many attempts to direct attention away from himself and to dim the spotlight constantly shone on him for his central role in the creation of Alcoholics Anonymous. “(Wilson) would frequently declare that his only role was as the “umpire of the discussion that had created (the book) – a claim he repeated whenever he was given the chance. This is so far from the truth as to be almost laughable, but it is a perfect example of the purposeful reformulation of A.A. history, of creative storytelling, that Bill regularly used to protect himself from his own ego. Mythmaking proved to be his best defense against the “you are the man who saved [email protected] hhe 28 August 2020 6 Thoughts on the First Three Pages of “How It Works” my life” adulation that followed him everywhere throughout the rest of his life.” (WTBB, pgs. 446-447)

The Six Step Program Myth

“One particular element in Bill’s story – the details of the (so-called_ Six Step program supposedly being followed before the Twelve Steps were created – has generated considerable attention from A.A. members over the years. Most of that interest, however, has been driven by the misconception that there actually was a definite universally agreed upon and rigorously followed program of recovery in place before Wilson invented the Twelve Steps. This mistaken belief was directly and decisively addressed in a recent online comment by…A.A. historian Glenn Chestnut: “There is no evidence that there was any formal set of “Six Steps” being listed and followed by people in A.A. prior to Bill Wilson’s writing of the Twelve Steps in early December of 1938. People who like things neat and tidy, with lists to memorize, tend to get carried away with this idea of six steps, and start imagining early A.A. meetings with a window shade mounted on the walls, displaying the list of “The Six Steps”…and everybody sitting around memorizing and analyzing those Six Steps.”

“Wilson is surely to blame for this misunderstanding because he mentions this Six Step program in such a concrete, definite way – and with such regularity in his later writings and talks”. (NOTE: Several examples of this are provided in the first two pages of this handout. For example, Earl Treat’s story “He Sold Himself Short” in which he described the “Six-Step program as it was at the time” was first written and published in the Second Edition, published in 1955 – eighteen years after he was supposedly introduced to them by Dr. ).

“There is simply no mention of the Six Step Word-of-Mouth Program in any of Wilson’s writings or talks until May 1949 – ten and a half years after he supposedly used them as the foundation for his creation of the (Twelve) Steps.” (WTBB, pgs.448-449)

“Despite Wilson’s 1949 claim that these Six Steps harken back to the very beginning of his own sobriety – they did not! In “Bill’s Story” he acknowledged that the program of recovery had changed considerably since Ebby first visited him in 1934. It had certainly evolved to the point where there was some sort of (consistent) routine approach helping people stay sober…but there is no mention of anything in the early records even remotely resembling Bill’s reputed Six Step program. In Wilson’s defense it could be claimed that the historian’s maxim, “absence of evidence is not proof of absence (of evidence)” might apply here, but there actually is a tremendous amount of contemporary documentation showing exactly what people were doing to get sober before Bill wrote the Twelve Steps – and none of it suggests anything like his alleged Six Step program.” (WTBB, pg. 450)

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For example, in Fitz Mayo’s initial draft of his Big Book story (later entitled “Our Southern Friend”) he wrote “…the Man (Bill Wilson) asked if (I’d) be willing to try to be absolutely honest, absolutely pure, absolutely unselfish and absolutely loving…to get rid of this drink problem?’ In this first draft, Fitz describes a program of recovery – such as it is in this extremely abbreviated form – that is pure Oxford Group. That…salvation from alcohol can be had by adopting their Four Absolutes. However, by the time Mayo’s story was edited for the First Edition, Bill had changed it considerably: “…he asks me if I believed in a Power greater than myself, if I am willing to right all the wrongs I have ever done…am I willing to be honest with myself about myself and tell someone about myself…and am I willing to think of other people and their needs instead of myself to get rid of the drink problem?”

The original version of this encounter – which is surely how that conversation actually went – was rewritten to conform to the changes in the program. Rather than being pressed to accept the Four Absolutes (something almost certainly also recommended during his famous late-November 1934 “kitchen visit” with Bill rather than the Six Steps Wilson later claimed Ebby outlined) – Fitz was now reporting that he was asked if he was willing to believe in any kind of God, if he would be willing to take an honest personal inventory, then share it with another human being, make amends for past wrongs and become a less self-centered, more loving and caring person – all of which were now in line with the so-called Six Steps as well as the newly minted Twelve Step Program. (WTBB, pgs. 450-451)

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So there you have it. Both the story as we’ve come to know it – the retelling of the Legend – and a recitation of some more factual historical data. You now have enough information to either make a more educated decision as far as which to believe – or to begin your own research study.

Whichever you choose to believe, it would do well to remember what Dr. Bob said of Bill’s Twelve Steps: “I think it’s one of the great instances of direct (divine) inspiration…in human history.” (WTBB, pg. 443 footnote) And, as Ebby Thacher said, “…(it) didn’t make any difference because the idea is there and the principle of the thing is about the same.” In writing of the differences between Bill and Ebby Thacher’s versions of their “kitchen/table talk encounter, Bill Schaberg states: “… as far as Bill Wilson was concerned, it was the idea and the principle of the thing that were far more important than any jumbled collection of actual facts. Wilson’s story had drama and impact, delivering an unmistakable message of hope.”

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