Preface (Part I)

preface (n) [pref-is]:  a preliminary statement in a book by the book's author or editor, setting forth its purpose and scope, expressing acknowledgment of assistance from others, etc.

The dictionary has never failed me as a reference to turn to when I’m not entirely sure what a word means.  I think it is a very important tool to use when reading the Big Book.  It helps us gain a better understanding of the material we are digesting.

Interestingly, my Pocket 4th edition Big Book has a typo in it that tells me that there were only 19,550 3rd editions in circulation.  The actual number is 19,550,000.  So, with approximately 20 million 3rd editions, 1.2 million 2nd editions, and 300 thousand 1st editions, we can estimate that prior to the 4th edition being published, there were 21.5 million Big Books in circulation.  I don’t know the exact number of 4th editions in circulation, but I do know that in 2005, the 25 millionth Big Book was presented to the warden at San Quentin prison.  My educated guess puts us at probably 30 million books having been published since 1939.  Now, I’m assuming some of these have been destroyed.  Many have probably made better coasters or door stops than guides to recovery.  I would also venture to guess that there are many non-alcoholics who own a book and many alcoholics, like me, who own many more than one.  The single largest purchaser of AA literature is the U.S. Navy.  I would imagine they have warehouses full of boxes of Big Books.

However, I imagine there are a lot of alcoholics out there who own a Big Book but aren’t aware of the powerful message inside.  Despite all of these Big Books in circulation, AA has a membership of roughly 2 million people.  I don’t want to hammer home an unsubstantiated point on this situation, but as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, I must at least ask myself, “Why are there suffering alcoholics out there, with a Big Book on their bookshelf, and a bottle in their hand, who have not been properly educated about a program that can save their lives?”

(Coming soon:  Preface (Part II):  Our Basic Text?)