WILSON, William Griffith ("Bill") (1895–1971). Alcoholics Anonymous. New York: Works Publishing Company, 1939.

First edition, first printing, in original dust-jacket. Published in New York in 1939 four years after Bill Wilson and Robert Holbrook Smith founded A.A. in 1935, it is known as the celebrated “Big Book.” The work sets out the program’s Twelve Steps and preserves early members’ testimonies, marking a turning point in modern approaches to addiction and recovery. It remains one of the most influential American publications of the twentieth century.

This copy is from the library of Smith Ely Jelliffe (1866-1945), a leading psychiatrist and psychoanalyst of the early 20th century. Editor of the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, he is considered a pioneer of psychosomatic medicine. His interests included alcoholism, addiction, and other disorders of behavior and mental health. Custom red and black clamshell box.

Octavo. Original red cloth stamped in gilt (old call number on spine). Original dust jacket (rubbing and wear, creasing and small loss to front panel, some soiling, several closed tears repaired on verso).

Date stamp to front free endpaper
Smith Ely Jelliffe, American neurologist and psychiatrist, 1866-1945 (bookplate, ownership inscription; sold library to:)
Institute of Living, psychiatric facility in Hartford, Connecticut (blindstamp to title page, call number to spine)
Ken Roberts Collection
acquired from Michael Fitzpatrick, 2021