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by Gladys Sylvester Tweedie Blue Chip

374 wordsrevised 2015-08-01

Blue Chip

by Gladys Sylvester Tweedie

Illustrated by Norma Smith Tweedie


Prestile Publishing Company, Westfield, Main, 124pp.1954, first edition. Inscribed by author. Except for the author’s inscription there is no no writing in the book and and there are no torn or missing pages. The cover has water damage that caused the red cloth to bleed onto the pastedowns and ffep, rfep; the binding is tight, the text pages have some age-toning. No dust jacket, not sure if it ever had one. The book is out of print and difficult to locate.

The book is inscribed by the author.

Some significant notes about this book:

  • The book is dedicated to AA’s cofounder Bill W. and his wife Lois.
  • The author acknowledges Alcoholics Anonymous for use of its slogans, stories and references to the AA program of recovery.
  • While the book is fictional, the author states that the story is a realistic story of an alcoholic who eventually finds recovery in the rooms of AA.
  • The title gets it name from the chip program practiced at some AA groups that acknowledges sobriety anniversaries. The blue chip represents a period of continuous sobriety as stated in the book: Bill told me quite a bit about A.A. He said you have to admit you’re an alcoholic and start from there. They have a “chip system” too. If a man wants to try the program he takes a white chip. If he stays sober for thirty days he gets a red chip, and if he stays sober another thirty days he gets a blue chip. That’s the one, that blue chip. He tries to keep it, sort of a pocket-piece or mascot.
  • There are direct references to the Big Book of AA, such as the statement: Jack has become a veritable “Dr. Jekyll abd Mr. Hyde.” Sober - he is industrious, solicitous, and affable. Drunk – he seems driven by a seething, internal, unquenchable fire, that is capable of driving him to utter ruin of body and soul.
  • The book mentions the Jack Alexander articles that appeared in the Saturday Evening Post on March 1, 1941, stating: I read Jack Alexander’s article in the Saturday Evening Post and carried it my pocketbook since 1941.
  • There are historic references to significant places in AA’s history, including Knickerbocker Hospital and the 41st Street Club in NY City.