What We Were Like

In September 1939, the first national article about Alcoholics Anonymous appeared, published in Liberty Magazine and written by a freelance journalist named Morris Markey. You will see that this article differs, in some significant ways, from AA history as we know it. But it's a sympathetic account of AA and its publication was a real break for the fledgling society, which had just published the Big Book and was struggling to make ends meet. About 800 letters came into AA "headquarters" in response to the article. Bill W. later wrote: "We carefully answered each one, not forgetting to enclose a book order blank. Orders soon began to come in and, helped by still more letters from our little office on Vesey Street, and by traveling AA members, new groups started up."