AA Officers now acting as AA police to investigate AA members
AA Officers meet in a brothel paid by German AA Inc. and prepare litigation
See also The Royalty Agreement between Bill Wilson and AAWS regardless if Bill is or is not author of a work huge royalties are received
See also The Last Will and Testament of Bill Wilson dated 12th day of January, 1968 AA money leaves the Fellowship
Bill's Last Will and Testament dated August 2, 1965 AA money leaves the Fellowship
See also The Last Will and Testament of Lois B. Wilson AA money leaves the Fellowship
See also AA World Services policy on litigation 1999 AAWS Inc. claims sole ownership and distribution monopoly for the big book of AA
A quote you perhaps know comes out of the 12&12 where it states that AA should remain financially poor: (p165)
| pg XXV Many years ago one of the leading contributors to this book came under our care in this hospital and while here he acquired some ideas which he put into practical applica- tion at once. Later, he requested the privilege of being allowed to tell his story to other patients here and with some misgiving, we consented. The cases we have followed through have been most interesting; in fact, many of them are amazing. The unselfishness of these men as we have come to know them, the entire absence of profit motive, and their com- munity spirit, is indeed inspiring to one who has labored long and wearily in this alcoholic field. They believe in themselves, and still more in the Power which pulls chronic alcoholics back from the gate of death. | Keep in mind, that one Dollar in 1938 could buy, what today 100 Dollars can. ... A post card needed a 1 Cent stamp only and the average monthly income of an employed worker was around $40.
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Now let us look to the records: Bill in his generosity contributed $100 and took $1558
A pretty good deal, so to say.
If you want to read the Business Report of Works Publishing in full length Click here!
So-called "official" AAWS literature repeatedly states our book was a group effort. Bill wasn't the sole author of the Big Book. Unknown by the fellowship he secretly registered as author of the entire volume. When this dishonesty was discovered, he was urged to abandon his stolen "intellectual property".
Foreword to the First Edition of the big book.
WE, of Alcoholics Anonymous, are more than one hundred men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. To show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book.Chapter two, pg 19
We have concluded to publish an anonymous volume setting forth the problem as we see it. We shall bring to the task our combined experience and knowledge. This should suggest a useful program for anyone concerned with a drinking problem.DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, XI. Early meetings and Big Book controversies pg 151
Of necessity there will have to be discussion of matters medical, psychiatric, social, and religious. We are aware that these matters are, from their very nature, controversial. Nothing would please us so much as to write a book which would contain no basis for contention or argument. We shall do our utmost to achieve that ideal.
* footnote: In fact there was such proposal. But it was not Bill's idea. AA archives revealed a document authored by Hank Parkhurst. It was written in March 1938 or earlier. See ../1938/index.htm
Bill himself wrote in The AA Service Manual "AA's Legacy of Service / AA Its Own Publisher":
Fierce argument over these drafts and what ought to go into them was a main feature of the New York and Akron Groups' meetings for months on end. I became much more of an umpire than I ever was an author. Meanwhile, the alcoholics at Akron and New York and a couple in Cleveland began writing their stories - 28 in all.AA Comes of Age, pg 165, bottom
I began to forget that this was everybody's book and that I had been mostly the umpire of the discussions that had created it.
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Backside of the form
In the book it said that all royalties go to the Alcoholic Foundation. Everybody should think that nobody makes money out of the book.
Sometimes later Hank P., the director of Honor Dealers, went out of business. A for-profit stock corporation was founded in May 1940, named Works Publishing Inc.
was taken over by the Alcoholic Foundation. Dr. Bob, a trustee of The Alcoholic Foundation, received the right to get $500 royalties every three months. June 20, 1940
February 1953 the name changed: Works Publishing Inc. became Alcoholics Anonymous Publishing, Inc., still a for-profit stock company.
This was in violation of tradition six:
Nevertheless, property reamained under rule of the same family clan.
Leonard V. Strong was Bill's brother-in-law, because he was married to Bill's sister Dorothy. Bill also assigned Dorothy and her husband as his heirs to receive cash royalty payments after he himself had passed.
How unselfish and honest AA really was
| BB pg13 . . . Never was I to pray for myself, except as my requests bore on my useful- ness to others. Then only might I expect to receive. | |
| BB pg14 Simple, but not easy; a price had to be paid. It | AA, as we know it today, paid three of the authors -real or fancied- while wrote part of the book, and then paid him to buy the book, and continues to pay more than $l million a year to his heirs. |
| BB pg15 My wife and I abandoned ourselves with enthusi- asm to the idea of helping other alcoholics to a solution of their problems. | |
| BB pg 19 Many could recover if they had the oppor- tunity we have enjoyed. How then shall we present that which had been so freely given us? We have concluded to publish an anonymous vol- ume setting forth the problem as we see it. We shall bring to the task our combined experience and knowl- edge. | |
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It should be noted that the book, TWELVE STEPS AND TWELVE TRADITIONS, was also written while Bill was on the AA payroll. When this AA book first came out it was published by Harper & Brothers Publishing for profit. Royalties were paid for this book too.
