2 Changes Corrected In The Big Book
Date:
Fri, 15 Feb 2002 20:21:55 -0500
From:
"Lash, William (Bill)" <wlash@avaya.com>
Greg (G.S.O. General Manager),
Good morning! I was visiting GSO (like I do from time to
time) a few months ago and I ran into you at the lobby. I had mentioned that there was a change in the Big Book that I was hoping someone at GSO could explain. You had said to email the question to you and that you would look into it for me (us). So here it is:
The heading to the Foreward to the Second Edition says that, "Figures given in this foreward describe the Fellowship as it was in 1955." On the second to last page of this Foreward (page xx in the Third and Fourth Editions), in the last two lines it says, "At present, our membership is increasing at the rate of about twenty per cent a year." I have a Third Edition, thirty-fifth printing (1989) Big Book and in MY book that line says, "seven per cent a year." I have also seen it in later Third Edition printings as, "twenty-five per cent a year." I was just wondering why this would fluctuate, and since this is supposed to be a statistic from 1955, why it would change at all? Thanks you for your time and offer to handle this! I truely believe that your job to AA as a whole is doing God's work, so thank you very much! God bless & take it easy!
Just Love,
Barefoot Bill
Dear Bill:
Greetings from the General Service Office Archives! It was nice to hear from you again. We appreciate the time you put into gathering all of the ‘historical tidbits’ that you sent to us.
G.S.O. General Manager, Greg M., recently forwarded a question of yours to our department. Specifically, you requested any information about a ‘changing statistic’ on page xx in the Foreword to the Second Edition of the Big Book.
According to our records, the sentence you referred to appeared as follows in the 1st through 4th Printings of the Second Edition:
“At present, our membership is pyramiding at a rate of twenty percent a year.” Beginning with the 5th Printing of the Second Edition the sentence was changed to: “At present, our membership is increasing at the rate of seven percent a year.”
The sentence containing the seven percent figure continued to be printed from the 5th Printing of the
Second Edition through the 16th (and final) Printing of the Second Edition (1962-1974) and also continued to appear in the 1st through 36th Printings of the Third Edition (1976-1990).
In 1990, beginning with the 37th Printing of the hardcover and the 13th Printing of the soft cover Big
Books, the sentence reverted back to its original, 1955 wording, which contained the twenty percent figure.
I hope that this information is helpful. If I can assist you further, please feel free to contact me again. The
Archives’ staff sends their warm regards.
Best Wishes,
Erin
Greg,
Thanks for your answer to last week's question about the change in the Foreward to the Second Edition of the Big Book. The only other change I have ever heard of is on page 66. In the ninth line up from the bottom, it used to say, "We were prepared to look for it from an entirely different angle." Now it says, "We were prepared to look at it from an entirely different angle." There isn't much difference here and it's basically insignificant but I was wondering if you could find out about this one too. Thanks and hope to see ya soon. God bless & take it easy!
Just Love,
Barefoot Bill
Dear Bill:
Greetings from the G.S.O. Archives! G.S.O. General Manager, Greg M., recently forwarded another question of yours to our department. Specifically, you requested information about a sentence in the Big Book on page 66, whose wording fluctuated between, "We were prepared to look at it..." and "We were prepared to look for it..."
The original wording of this sentence in the First Printing of the First Edition was, "We were prepared to
look at it..." The usage of "at" continued throughout all 16 printings of the First Edition.
Beginning with the First Printing of the Second Edition the wording then changed to, "We were prepared to look for it..." "For" appeared in all 16 printings of the Second Edition and carried over into the Third Edition through the 19th Printing.
Beginning with the 21st Printing of the Third Edition, the wording reverted back to, "We were prepared to look at it..." (The G.S.O. Archives does not have a copy of the 20th printing of the Third Edition, which is why we only know that the change in wording occurred sometime between the 19th and 21st printings).
I hope that this information is helpful. The Archives' staff sends their warm regards.
Sincerely,
Erin
Assistant Archivist