Last Updated on March 2, 2016 by Area 53 Web Team
Conference-Approved Literature – April 1952
On April 23, 1952, Panel 2 (consisting of 38 additional delegates) joined with Panel 1 for the first Conference of all Delegates attending. The first women Delegates joined Panel 2. They were Lois A (Abare) of Barre, VT and Fay B (Brown) of Bismarck, ND.
Based on a 1951 Conference advisory action recommending that AA literature should have Conference approval, the Board formed a special Trustees’ committee on literature to recommend literature items that should be retained and future literature items that would be needed. Bill W also reported on the many literature projects he was engaged in.
The 1952 Conference unanimously approved the Board proposals and Bill’s projects. There are not specific advisory actions but by approving existing literature to be retained, the Conference retroactively approved the Big Book and several existing pamphlets, which included the long form of the Traditions. (1952 GSC-FR 4) Bill’s book projects later resulted in six Conference-approved books.
Note on Bill’s books:
- “The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions” published in 1953;
- “The Third Legacy Manual” published in 1955 (renamed “The AA Service Manual” in 1969);
- The 2nd edition Big Book published in 1955;
- “AA Comes of Age” published in 1957;
- “The Twelve Concepts for World Service” published in 1962; and
- “The AA way of Life” published in 1966 (later renamed to “As Bill Sees It” in 1975).