Aa history Lovers 2009 moderators Nancy Olson and Glenn F. Chesnut page
part of the time he worked in New York from a home in Little Silver, New Jersey
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the time he worked in New York from a home in Little Silver, New Jersey. Today, there's a train station about one block away from that house, which-as of this writing -- is still standing. But, it's unclear whether the train station was there at the time Silkworth lived in Little Silver. As noted previously, the book, "Alcoholics Anonymous," reports that early AA members considered Dr. Silkworth a "---medical saint." It was never a secret that his personal relationship with Alcoholics Anonymous was both deep and emotional. He was called, "-the little doctor who loved drunks" because he genuinely cared for and experienced communion with alcoholics. And, they loved
him. An in-depth explanation can be found in, "Language of The Heart," (p. 176).
Dr. Silkworth treated some 40,000 alcoholics during his career. Wilson added, "He never tired of drunks and their problems. A frail man, he never complained of fatigue. During most of his career he made only a bare living. He never sought distinction; his work was his reward. In his last years, he ignored a heart condition and died on the job--among us drunks, and with his boots on." All but one of the AA historians who influenced this writing believe that Dr. Silkworth held positions at both Towns and Knickerbocker Hospitals at the time of his death. But, it should be noted that the respected AA historian and author Mel B., who wrote much of "Pass It On," the official AA biography of Bill Wilson, mentions only Silkworth's affiliation with Knickerbocker Hospital at the
time of the doctor's death. Wilson showed his gratitude to Silkworth in 1950 and '51, when he and some associates tried to raise enough money to allow "Silkie" and Marie, to retire to New Hampshire. The doctor was going to be medical director of the treatment center, Beech Hill Farm, near Dublin, New Hampshire. But, Silkworth died before
it could happen. So: Bill, noting Mrs. Silkworth's strained financial circumstances, raised $25,000 for a Silkworth Memorial, to supplement the widow's small income.
version
of the AA Grapevine. And, the article indicates AAs of that time considered Silkworth more than a "medical saint." To those AA's who knew him, William Duncan Silkworth was a hero. The April 1951 Grapevine article notes, "He freely
risked his professional reputation to champion an unprecedented spiritual answer
to the medical enigma and the human tragedy of alcoholism." Historians point out
that he might have been laughed out of the American Medical Association for holding such a view. Obviously, that did not happen. Wilson, who previously had referred to Dr. Silkworth as "-AA's first and best
friend" eulogized Silkworth in the May 1951 Grapevine. And, his affection and
sense of personal loss is expressed in a notation on a copy of the appeal for
funds (found in the archives of the General Service Conference of A.A.) It says,
"Thank Heaven we started this before Silkie went." The Wilson article, written especially for The Grapevine, concludes with two questions: "Who of us in AA can match this record of Dr. Silkworth's? Who has his measure of fortitude, faith and dedication?". SOURCES: The AA publications: "Alcoholics Anonymous", "Pass It On", "The Grapevine" and "Language of The Heart"; the Archives of the AA General Service Office; "Not-God" by Ernest Kurtz; "The Journal of Studies on Alcohol 1977" which contained "The Ideology of a Therapeutic Social Movement: Alcoholics Anonymous." by Leonard Blumberg: published by The Center of Alcohol Studies, Rutgers University); "Dictionary of American Temperance Biography: From Temperance Reform to Alcohol Research, the 1600s to the 1980s" by Mark Edward Lender; "Lois Remembers" by Lois Burnham Wilson; "My Search For Bill W" by Mel B.; Yale University; New York University and private conversations with AA's who knew Dr. Silkworth. I'm grateful for the above sources. Any errors are my own. Researched/written for: The Round Table of AA History by Mike O. (Michael O'Neil) of The Just Do It Big Book Study Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, DeBary, Florida. Updated/revised: 1999, 2000, and 2001. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 5998. . . . . . . . . . . . Meet and greet in San Antonio From: Shakey1aa@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/3/2009 9:24:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII How about AAHL's get a meet and greet at the 2010 AA international convention in San Antonio next year?
Thursday before the convention so we could all meet.
Phila Pa USA. going to NAW this month in Calif.
From: ckbudnick . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/5/2009 12:47:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I'm interested in learning about a publication called the Alconaire. This is possibly a news letter from a local AA committee.
in the October 5, 1952 issue of the Addicts Anonymous newsletter The Key (based out of the US Public Health Services Hospital in Lexington, KY).
A. A. Slips and Relapses and appeared as an editorial written by Steve W. in the July/August 1952 issue of the Alconaire. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Chris B. Raleigh, NC (cbudnick at nc.rr.com) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 6000. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: A publication called the Alconaire From: David Jones . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/5/2009 4:42:00 PM
'alconaire' in the Grapevine between 1949 and 1962, you can look the articles up in the digital archive. God bless Dave
> I'm interested in learning about a publication > called the Alconaire. This is possibly a news > letter from a local AA committee. > > I came across a reference to the Alconaire > in the October 5, 1952 issue of the Addicts > Anonymous newsletter The Key (based out of > the US Public Health Services Hospital in > Lexington, KY). > > The article reprinted in the Key is called > A. A. Slips and Relapses and appeared as an > editorial written by Steve W. in the > July/August 1952 issue of the Alconaire. > > Any help would be greatly appreciated. > > Chris B. > Raleigh, NC > > (cbudnick at nc.rr.com) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 6001. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: AAHL meet and greet -- San Antonio Internat''l -- July 2010 From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/5/2009 10:08:00 PM
us who belong to the AAHistoryLovers to meet at the 2010 International. A really good initial response in 10 hours. I don't know when or where to meet. If the responses keep coming, when I'm at the National Archives Workshop in California September 24 thru 27th, I'll ask Michelle from GSO archives if we can meet Friday morning where the GSO archives are located and perhaps ask her to address the group.
hotel room at the convention center with coffee, cookies and donuts. For now I guess it's best to wait and see. I'll keep all of you informed.
Shakey
(shakey1aa at aol.com) - - - - A.A. INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION San Antonio, Texas -- July 1-4, 2010 http://www.aa.org/lang/en/subpage.cfm?page=199 http://www.aa.org/lang/en/subpage.cfm?page=211 http://www.aa.org/lang/en/subpage.cfm?page=368 http://www.aa.org/lang/en/subpage.cfm?page=369 http://www.visitsanantonio.com/AA2010/index.aspx - - - - Message 5998 from: Shakey Mike G. How about AAHL's get a meet and greet at the 2010 AA international convention in San Antonio next year?
Thursday before the convention so we could all meet.
Phila Pa USA IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 6002. . . . . . . . . . . . Slips ignored in calculating sober time in pioneering AA days From: jax760 . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/7/2009 9:58:00 AM
of the early members I have come to the conclusion that a "slip" did not trigger a reset of the sober clock to zero as it does today.
compiled by Dr. Bob in Jan/Feb of 38 and a New Jersey list from 1/1/1940. Both lists were prepared for the Rockefellers. In both instances "Time" or "Length Dry Mos." is totalized and slips, if listed, (the NJ list), are detailed in a separate column without affecting the dry time. God Bless John B IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 6003. . . . . . . . . . . . Harry Emerson Fosdick From: kevinr1211 . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/7/2009 3:24:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Fosdick wrote a series of daily reflection books around the time of the outbreak of WW I. They are really great -- he strongly believed in personal transformation and talked a lot of recovery language and emphasized the importance of fellowship. Fosdick seems to me to be very much spiritually in synch with 12 step approach.
introduced Bill Wilson to Rockefeller? Does anyone know if Fosdick's books "The Meaning of Faith," "The Meaning of Prayer," and "The Meaning of Service" played a role in early AA? Thanks, Kevin - - - - From Glenn C. (South Bend, Indiana) Harry Emerson Fosdick (1878-1969) American clergyman, b. Buffalo, N.Y., graduated from Colgate University, 1900, and Union Theological Seminary, 1904. Ordained a Baptist minister in 1903. Fosdick was the most prominent liberal Baptist minister of the early 20th Century. He was Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church on West Twelfth Street and then at historic Riverside Church (formerly Park Avenue Baptist Church) in New York City. Fosdick became a central figure in the conflict between fundamentalist and liberal forces within American Protestantism in the 1920s and 1930s. While at First Presbyterian Church, on May 12, 1922, he delivered his famous sermon “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?” in which he defended the modernist position. In that sermon he presented the Bible as a record of the unfolding of God’s will,
not as the literal Word of God. He saw the history of Christianity as one of development, progress, and gradual change. To the fundamentalists, this was rank apostasy, and the battle lines were drawn. A master preacher, liberal thinker and author of 47 books, Harry Emerson Fosdick
drew huge congregations and radio audiences as well as famous critics. A Baptist
minister, he rose to prominence as the weekly preacher at New York City's First
Presbyterian Church (1918-1924). Fundamentalist Christians nationwide attacked
his view that "modern Christians" could doubt doctrines such as the literal truth of the Bible and the virgin birth of Jesus and still remain faithful. In a sermon, "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?" (1922), he spoke out against the exclusion of modernists and their views. A Fosdick publicist mailed it to thousands of U.S. churches, fueling the controversy. Not wanting a prolonged national fight with Presbyterian conservatives, Fosdick left and in 1925 became
pastor of Park Avenue Baptist Church. The church moved in 1930 to a cathedral-like structure in Upper Manhattan, built by Park Avenue member John D. Rockefeller Jr., and became the interdenominational Riverside Church. Fosdick preached there until his retirement in 1946. In the 1920s, political orator William Jennings Bryan, who faced Clarence Darrow in the Scopes "Monkey Trial,"
was among Fosdick's fundamentalist Presbyterian attackers. Humanist editor and
philosopher Walter Lippmann, in A Preface to Morals (1929), derided Fosdick for
lacking dogmatic certainty; Fosdick replied in As I See Religion (1932), an argument for liberal Christianity. Fosdick married Florence Allen Whitney in 1904, the year he became pastor at First Baptist Church, Montclair, N.J. Their daughters were Elinor (born 1911) and Dorothy (1913)... He taught at New York's Union Theological Seminary from 1908 to 1946 ... His "National Vespers Hour" aired for 19 years on NBC and short-wave radio and was heard in 17 countries... Fosdick drew the title of his
1956 autobiography, The Living of These Days, from a verse of his 1930 hymn, "God of Grace and God of Glory"... Fosdick wrote for such popular magazines as Harper's, Atlantic Monthly, and Ladies' Home Journal and was on Time's cover in 1925 and 1930. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Fosdick's famous hymn "God of Grace and God of Glory" (written in 1930) REFERS TO PRIDE AS THE GREAT ENEMY (compare Bill W.'s emphasis on Pride (and egotism and ego run riot) as the root sin in most alcoholics, in both the Big Book and 12 and 12. FOSDICK'S HYMN: God of grace and God of glory, On Thy people pour Thy power. Crown Thine ancient church’s story, Bring her bud to glorious flower. Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, For the facing of this hour, For the facing of this hour.
Bend our PRIDE to Thy control. Shame our wanton selfish gladness, Rich in things and poor in soul. Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, Lest we miss Thy kingdom’s goal, Lest we miss Thy kingdom’s goal.
anti-fundamentalist sermon (1922): "SHALL THE FUNDAMENTALISTS WIN?" The most important parts of the sermon are given at: http://amhist.ist.unomaha.edu/module_files/Harry%20Emerson%20Fosdick%20Shall %20t\
The full text of the sermon is given at: http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5070/ http://baptiststudiesonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/01/shall-the-fundame ntal\
Also see "Classical Protestant Liberalism and Early A.A." at: http://hindsfoot.org/ProtLib.html which also refers to The Upper Room, along with the three German theologians Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834), Albrecht Ritschl (1822-1889), and Adolf Harnack (1851-1930). Also note the American Congregationalist Horace Bushnell (1802-1876). He is important in understanding the Appendix to the Big Book on spiritual experience. Bushnell's book Christian Nurture (1847) stated that in modern America, more and more people were coming into the spiritual life as the result of a kind of "educational experience," as opposed to being converted in a single highly emotional religious experience at a revival. The revivalistic conversion experience had been common on the American frontier, but the United States was now turning into something very different from a wild frontier society. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well known Protestant liberals in THE OXFORD GROUP: Burnett Hillman Streeter's book "The God Who Speaks" (Warburton Lectures 1933-5,
pub. 1936) was an important Oxford Group book. But Streeter also wrote The Four
Gospels: A Study of Origins (1924), a liberal study in which he argued that the
Gospels did not give the actual words which Jesus spoke with literal accuracy. Matthew and Luke, in particular, were created by people who lived after the time
of the original apostles, people who had a copy of Mark and a collection of Jesus' sayings called "Q," and changed Jesus' words around to fit their own literary style and theological speculations.
a good deal of legendary material, according to Streeter and his followers, which grew up in the fifty to sixty years after Jesus' death. This is important, because the story of the Virgin Birth and the story of the Empty Tomb did not
enter the Christian tradition until the gospels of Matthew and Luke were written.
Can I Find God?" was written in 1934. He was a member of the Oxford Group from 1930 to 1939, and was regarded by many as the unofficial head of the Oxford Group in London.
I can find no references anywhere indicating that Dr. Bob or anybody else in early AA was reading CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOUR literature at any point during the formative 15-year period from 1935 to 1950, or recommending that anybody else
read that kind of children's literature. Dr. Bob was 55 when he had his last drink. The world of 1935 was very different indeed from the world of his childhood, which was a primitive era back before
automobiles or airplanes existed. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Protestant Christian world in which Dr. Bob lived in 1935 was not the world
of the 19th century children's literature propagated by the Christian Endeavour movement.
The
Upper Room, Reinhold Niebuhr, and liberal Oxford Group thinkers like B. H. Streeter and Leslie Weatherhead. And it was the world of NEW THOUGHT authors like Emmet Fox's Sermon on the Mount
and James Allen's As a Man Thinketh. Mel B. wrote me recently and spoke of the importance for Bill Wilson's thought
of the Canadian psychiatrist Richard Maurice Bucke's "Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind" (1901). This fit smoothly with the early twentieth century New Thought movement, and it fits even more smoothly into late 20th and early 21st century New Age spirituality. Glenn C. (South Bend, Indiana) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 6004. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: AAHL meet and greet -- San Antonio Internat''l -- July 2010 From: rriley9945@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/6/2009 1:16:00 PM
I remember from the 2005 International that the GSO Archives was looking for help to man the Archives display. It was a great two-hour stint for me and I heartily recommend it to others as a way of doing service. I hope to help out again if asked.
for rooms in the San Antonio area. I was online September 1 -- the first day of registration -- and many rooms were sold out already. Bob from Long Island IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 6005. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: A publication called the Alconaire From: J. Lobdell . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/6/2009 7:27:00 AM
of Alcoholics Anonymous" by the inmates of the South Dakota State Prison at Sioux Falls SD in the early 1950s. I believe there are copies for six years or so in the South Dakota State University Library. The digital Grapevine archive contains a number of references.
> From: cbudnick@nc.rr.com > Date: Sat, 5 Sep 2009 16:47:03 +0000 > Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] A publication called the Alconaire > > I'm interested in learning about a publication > called the Alconaire. This is possibly a news > letter from a local AA committee. > > I came across a reference to the Alconaire > in the October 5, 1952 issue of the Addicts > Anonymous newsletter The Key (based out of > the US Public Health Services Hospital in > Lexington, KY). > > The article reprinted in the Key is called > A. A. Slips and Relapses and appeared as an > editorial written by Steve W. in the > July/August 1952 issue of the Alconaire. > > Any help would be greatly appreciated. > > Chris B. > Raleigh, NC > > > (cbudnick at nc.rr.com) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 6006. . . . . . . . . . . . Addicts Anonymous From: jenny andrews . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/6/2009 3:32:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Yüklə 11,49 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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