A12StepRecoveryDiner

Story Of How The Twelve Steps Were Written

As is the case with much of A.A.'s history, the question cannot be answered definitively because various people have written different accounts of the events. I am going to quote the readily available literature on this subject and let you decide for yourself what happened on that fateful December 1938 evening.

Language of the Heart (Bill Wilson) - Reprint of July 1953 Grapevine Article

"A fragment of history: Origin of the Twelve Steps"
(pages: 200-201)

"I well remember the evening on which the Twelve Steps were written. I was lying in bed quite dejected and suffering from one of my imaginary ulcer attacks."...

"Having arrived at Chapter Five, it seemed high time to state what our program really was. I remember running over in my mind the world-of-mouth phrases then in current use. Jotting these down, they added up to the six named above."...

"At length I began to write on a cheap yellow tablet. I split the world-of-mouth program up into smaller pieces, meanwhile enlarging its scope considerably. Uninspired as I felt, I was surprised that in a short time, perhaps half an hour, I had set down certain principles which, on being counted, turned out to be twelve in number."...

So, in 1953, Bill stated he wrote the Twelve Steps in about half an hour.

Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age (Bill Wilson), Copyright: 1957
(pages: 160-161)

"I was in this anything-but-spiritual mood on the night when the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous were written. I was sore and tired clear through. I lay in bed at 182 Clinton Street with pencil in hand and with a tablet of scratch paper on my knee."...

"This particular evening, as my mind ran over these developments, it seemed to me that the program was still not definite enough."...

"Finally I started to write. I set out to draft more than six steps; how many more I did not know. I relaxed and asked for guidance. With a speed that was astonishing, considering my jangling emotions, I completed the first draft. It took perhaps half an hour. The words kept right on coming. When I reached a stopping point, I numbered the new steps. They added up to twelve. Somehow this number seemed significant."...

In 1957, Bill again stated that he wrote only the Twelve Steps on that December 1938 evening.

So much for Bill's own words. Let's see what the only other person who was there at that time had to say. In Lois Remembers, Bill Wilson's wife wrote her recollections of the event.

Lois Remembers (Lois Wilson), Copyright: 1979
(page: 113)

"By this time Bill was ready to start the fifth chapter, 'How It Works.' He was not feeling well, but the writing had to go on, so he took pad and pencil to bed with him. How could he bring the program alive so that those at a distance, reading the book, could apply it to themselves and perhaps get well? He had to be very explicit. The six Oxford Group principles that the Fellowship had been using were not definite enough. He must broaden and deepen their implications. He relaxed and asked for guidance.

When he finished writing and reread what he had put down, he was quite pleased. Twelve principles had developed--the Twelve Steps."

As Lois remembered it, Bill wrote only the Twelve Steps on that December 1938 evening.

Now let's look at what Bill's biographer and other authors had to say about the writing of the Twelve Steps.

Bill W., Robert Thomsen, 1975
(pages: 281-282)

"The fall and winter raced by, the busiest and one of the most productive times in Bill's life. His days were spent in Newark writing, his evenings at meetings, reading aloud what he'd written, defending it, sometimes rewriting it."

"And so it went, strong but warm-hearted arguing, until they reached Chapter Five. That was where Bill wanted to explain exactly how they worked. Ever since he and Bob had tried to shape a program, their ideas had been based on Oxford Group principles: first admitting they were powerless over alcohol, then making a moral inventory, confessing their shortcomings to another, making amends wherever possible, and finally praying for the power to carry out these concepts and to help other drunks.". . .

"One night, late in December, stretched out on his bed at Clinton Street, he set to work trying to be explicit, to break down the program into smaller pieces and, if possible, broaden and deepen the spiritual implications of their ideas. When he had finished, he counted the steps he had outlined; there were twelve in all."

So Bill's biographer also stated that Bill wrote only Twelve Steps that night.

Not God, Ernie Kurtz, Copyright 1979
(pages: 69-70)

"Sprawling on his bed in an "anything but spiritual mood" one evening, Wilson poised his yellow pencil over the school tablet propped before him. Quickly, lest he block, he scrawled the words "How It Works" across the top of the page..."

"...Quickly, before that thought could overwhelm him, Wilson began to write, seeking to set down a theme of hope--something on which all could agree."

'Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path.'

Bill's pencil began to fly over the paper, and his thoughts continued to flow as he wrote a paragraph beginning:

"Half measures will avail you nothing. You stand at the turning point. Throw yourself under God's protection and care with complete abandon. Now we think you can take it! Here are the steps we took--our program of recovery:

"We admitted we were powerless over alcohol--that our lives ha become unmanageable.
Came to believe that God could restore us to sanity.
Made a decision to turn our wills and our lives over to the care of God.
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
Humbly on our knees asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
Having had a spiritual experience as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

Wilson paused. His intention had been to 'break up into smaller pieces . . . our six chunks of truth . . . to be as clear and comprehensible as possible, [leaving] not a single loophole through which the rationalizing alcoholic could wiggle out." Almost idly, he began to number the new steps: "They added up to twelve. Somehow this number seemed significant."

In 1979, Ernie Kurtz claimed that Bill wrote all of the Introduction to "How it Works" plus the Twelve Steps in one evening.

In 1984, Mel B. et al., wrote Pass It On. In this book, Mel restated Bill's original story.

Pass It On, Anonymous (Mel B. et al) Copyright 1984.
(page: 197)

"Bill wrote the Twelve Steps, he said, while lying in bed at 182 Clinton Street with pencil in hand and a pad of yellow scratch paper on his knee. He wrote them in bed, said Lois, not because he was really sick, but he wasn't felling well, and if he could lie down, he did: 'He got into bed, that being the best place to think.'

As he started to write, he asked for guidance. And he relaxed. The words began tumbling out with astonishing speed. He completed the first draft in about half an hour, and then kept on writing until he felt he should stop and review what he had written. Numbering the new steps, he found that they added up to twelve--a symbolic number; he thought of the Twelve Apostles, and soon became convinced that the Society should have twelve steps.

The very first draft of the Twelve Steps, as Bill wrote them that night, had been lost. This is an approximate reconstruction of the way he first set them down."

Reviewing these six articles, including two by the author and one by his wife, Ernie Kurtz is the only one who claimed Bill wrote the Introduction plus the Twelve Steps in one sitting.