Posted on 05/06/2018 11:03:12 PM PDT by oxcart
The founding document of Alcoholics, Anonymous, known to adherents as the "Big Book," sold at auction Saturday for $2.4 million to billionaire and Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay.
The auction house Profiles in History announced the sale of the manuscript with handwritten notes from the group's founding fathers.
Irsay told The Associated Press he plans to build a special display for the manuscript and display it for several months a year at Alcoholics Anonymous' headquarters in New York. He says he attempted to buy the manuscript when it was up for auction several years ago, and he is thrilled at the opportunity to share it publicly.
Irsay said he considers himself a steward for the manuscript, which he said he may also send out on tour so it can be seen by more people.
"I've held it. I've looked through it. It is absolutely mind-blowing," he said. "It was just a miracle to see this thing live."
Irsay, who was clearly excited about obtaining the manuscript during a telephone interview, said he considered remaining anonymous about purchasing the manuscript, but wanted to go public to try to relieve the stigma of alcoholism and addiction.
"The only way we stay sober is to give it away," Irsay said.
"I think it'll help a lot of people," he said. "That's the reason I'm doing it."
He said he attended his first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting 25 years ago, and marvels at the reach of the organization and what its founders built.
(Excerpt) Read more at abc3340.com ...
I can’t wait to see it myself. 21 years clean and sober.
But the original draft is written on the back of Ted Kennedy’s bar tab...
I guess he didn’t read the part that says we should remain anonymous at the level of press, TV and film.
It has always astonished me how people who make Bill W. and Dr. Bob “gods” think they can find a better way to do it. An easier and softer way never works. The results will always be nill.
I’ve heard drunks say that “big shotism” leads to a slip and a return to adult beverages.
Anonymity is an antidote to a big ego.
I can’t wait to become an alcoholic so that I can appreciate AA more when, after a self-destructive downward spiral, I will be forced to join by the justice system.
“I can’t wait to become an alcoholic so that I can appreciate AA more when, after a self-destructive downward spiral, I will be forced to join by the justice system.”
You wouldn’t make it.
Obviously he missed the meetings on the traditions and doesn’t have a sponsor or a home group that he attends on a regular basis.
An individual choosing to go public does not harm or change the tradition. And remember that effective 12th stepping necessitates disclosure to one or more persons. Has he overstepped? Let us take his inventory at some later time.
An exceptional book.
(Clean & sober 26 years. Praise God - working through Bill Wilson).
I worked in a big city ER for 20+ years.I could tell you stories about the ravages of alcohol that would make the hair on your toes curl.I could start with the story of one of our "frequent fliers" (all ERs have them) who froze to death one January night in a doorway located no more than a hundred yards from our front door.
Yea it’s not really anonymous when you are sitting next to people from high school that were forced there by a judge...
The courts shouldn’t make AA your only option. Multiple DUI/DWI offenses by the same person can also indicate incredibly bad luck and/or unnecessary risk-taking. Unfortunately, the verdict is always “alcoholism”. In a way, that’s what they charge you with and it’s also what they can sentence you to. The more you maintain at least the appearance of having been compliant, the easier things will be for you, especially while out on bond and all the way through your probation, which could be an early release if your PO makes a recommendation to the judge. Good luck!
I think I’m torn on this one, I can see both sides. Maybe you guys can help me with your thought processes.
Since tradition 11 is about public relations, and using attraction rather than promotion, I thought an individual wanting to break their anonymity was their choice alone. As long as they are not doing it to promote AA But for having something to do with their own life.
But in reading the article, it sure sounds like this guy is using the purchase in order to promote alcoholics anonymous.
OK, I guess I’ve talked myself into it, I think he is violating tradition 11.
I read traditional 11 in the 12 x 12 first, And this is pretty much exactly what it is talking about.
Now if this guy broke his anonymity, said yes I bought the book, and I am a member, then I don’t think that would be breaking The tradition. It’s just about actively promoting AA.
Now, whether I agree with the tradition or not doesn’t matter. I found that wiser people than me wrote these books.
That’s one of those humorless cracks that give sarcasm a bad name.
“Yea it’s not really anonymous when you are sitting next to people from high school that were forced there by a judge...”
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You nailed it right there.
.
Aside from the wise crack you’ve got it wrong. Big Brother would prefer to keep one a slave to addiction for the sake of growing the bureaucracy.
I have no idea why AA has not protested this or at least try to defy it.
$2.4 Million? I’ll drink to that!
My Father was an Alcoholic for over 60 Years. He quit cold turkey at age 79 after the death of my Mother. It got worse before it got better, but he did it on his own.
Years of us begging him to quit drinking were met with excuses, rage and excuse making.
He went to AA Religiously for over 13 Years and it saved his life. When he passed away, the people he helped just because they could see the possibility of remaining Sober in a Man that was over 90 Years Old were heartbroken.
Good, bad or indifferent, AA worked for my Father. They did what my Mother, Brother and I were unable to do, give my Father his Life and Self Respect back.
“I have no idea why AA has not protested this or at least try to defy it.”
I know,unless it’s the old “avoid controversy” thing——it has been going on for many years.
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