The New Fourth Edition
Following is a press release issued in November 2001 by the General Service Office of Alcoholics Anonymous regarding publication of the new Fourth Edition of the Big Book.
New York, November 2001---The General Service Office of Alcoholics Anonymous announces that the fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous (commonly referred to as the Big Book) is now available.
It is one of the top nonfiction bestsellers of all time. In the 25 years following publication of the third edition of AA’s Big Book, significant changes have occurred in the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous—its membership has quadrupled and expanded in diversity. This new edition reflects these changes.
As in previous editions, the basic text remains the same. It is the balance of the content (personal stories of AA members) that has changed---vividly presenting the broad range of ages, ethnicity, backgrounds, beliefs and occupations of members today.
Of the 42 stories of recovery from alcoholism (including those of AA co-founders Bill W. and Dr. Bob S.), 24 stories are new.
Inclusion of the new stories is the result of four years of effort and wide-ranging input. The stories were selected from narratives submitted by more than 1,200 AA members in the United States and Canada.
These members recall in their personal accounts what they were like during their drinking, including the denial, the alibis and self-delusions; what happened to cause them to turn to AA; and what they are like now as they continue to live sober, productive lives.
Common patterns emerge even though the storytellers are diverse. From the teenager who climbed out of a dark abyss of despair and the septuagenarian who got a late start in AA, to the Mic-Mac Indian whose feeble prayer brought undreamed-of joy in sobriety, their differing tales are, without exception, the stuff that hope is made of.
Over the years, the Big Book has opened the way to a life of comfortable sobriety for alcoholics who might otherwise have floundered hopelessly. It offers convincing evidence to relatives, friends and employers that compulsive drinkers can recover, and furnishes revealing insights to doctors, clergy, courts and others who work with alcoholics.
The Big Book was written by Bill W. with much input from the small group of barely sober, sometimes contentious members who miraculously found a single voice.
Since publication of the first edition in 1939, close to 22 million copies have been sold. It took 35 years to sell the first million copies of the Big Book. Now AA distributes more than a million copies each year in English alone.
The nearly 600-page volume has been published in 43 other languages, including Arabic, Croatian, Hindi, Mongolian, and Punjabi. Translation into Simplified Chinese, used throughout the People’s Republic of China, is currently underway.
Today AA has more than two million members, and its Fellowship has served as a model for Twelve Step programs addressing other problems.
The fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous costs $5.00 in hardcover---only $1.50 more than the first edition did 62 years ago. A soft-cover edition sells for $4.60.
Copies of the book and information about AA may be obtained at a local AA .service office, listed under Alcoholics Anonymous in the phone book, or through AA.World Services Inc., Box 459, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163, or online at www.aa.org.
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