Contact 3 — The Original Zoo Crew (OZ)

The idea of the Big Book started in 1937 but Bill didn’t really bear down on writing it until the Fall of 1938 and it was published in April of 1939.

One would think that the book got its name from the movement but Alcoholics Anonymous got its name from the title of the book and not the other way around. Before sending the book to press it needed a name and many titles were considered but they decided on Alcoholics Anonymous, thus the movement was called Alcoholics Anonymous.

In 1939 the Big Book sold for $3.50 and in today’s money that’s over $60 dollars!

Because of the huge price, Bill & Hank P. wanted people to feel they were getting their money’s worth so in 1939 the printer was told to use the thickest paper in his shop. The large, bulky volume became known as the “Big Book” and the name has stuck ever since.

Bill Wilson wrote every chapter of the Big Book except for “To the Employer” which was written by Hank Parkhurst.

In 2011, Time magazine placed the book on its list of the 100 best and most influential books written in English since 1923, the year in which the magazine was first published.

The Big Book has never been on The New York Times Best Seller list but in 2012, the Library of Congress designated it as one of 88 “Books that Shaped America.”

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Just_for_today.pdf

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