Copyright Page

I know what you’re probably thinking:  An entire post devoted to the Copyright Page?  Don’t worry.  I’m not going to spend an inordinate amount of time on this stuff.  I promise we’ll get to the meat of the book soon.  I do think this is worth taking a quick glance at though. 

If you have a book that was printed after 1993, this page should contain the statement used to replace the Circle and Triangle denoting the book as official AA literature:  This is A.A. General Service Conference-approved literature.  There is some debate in AA about using Big Books that were printed by other groups (e.g., The Anonymous Press).  On one hand, my concern is that by buying books from these other entities, you are taking money away from AA.  On the other hand, however, it seems to me that it is better that you have a book that isn’t published by AA than no book at all.

Another item of note is statement about what edition and printing your Big Book is.  For example:

My 2nd edition states:
Sixteen printings from 1939 to 1955
Second Edition, New & Revised, 1955
Thirteenth Printing, 1972

My pocket 4th edition states:
Fourth Edition, New & Revised, 2001
Pocket Edition Eighth Printing, February 2007

This information is not incredibly important to my recovery.  However, it is always good to remind myself that despite vast changes in society, after 71 years, 4 editions, and 80 printings (First Edition – 16, Second Edition – 16, Third Edition – 34, and Fourth Edition – 14), our basic text has remained largely unchanged.

I promised at the beginning that I would publish a post every Sunday.  I’m about an hour and four minutes late today.  My apologies.

(Coming soon:  Table of Contents)