Writing the Big Book Audiobook By William H. Schaberg cover art

Writing the Big Book

The Creation of A.A.

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Writing the Big Book

By: William H. Schaberg
Narrated by: Natasha Soudek
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In Writing the Big Book, William H. Schaberg presents an exciting, research-driven narrative of the history of the book, Alcoholic Anonymous, and the formative years of A.A. Granted extensive access to the group's archives along with several other sources, the author reveals the early Fellowship's conflicts and personalities, successes and failures, and dispels many of the myths found in such canonical texts as Dr. Bob and the Good Old Timers, Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, and A Brief History of the Big Book.

The result of 11 years of in-depth research, Schaberg's history relies whenever possible on primary, real-time documents. He thoroughly investigates the book's authorship, illuminating the lesser-known contributions of figures like Hank Parkhurst and Frank Amos, and reveals how the spiritual side of the A.A. program evolved and was vigorously debated.

The book focuses primarily on the eighteen months between October of 1937, when a book was first proposed, and April of 1939, when Alcoholics Anonymous was published. During the span of those 18 months, the wealth of available archival materials provides for an almost week-by-week accounting of events, including an amazing amount of previously unreported details, resulting in a comprehensive and compelling story.

©2019 William H. Schaberg (P)2019 Tantor Addiction & Recovery Alcoholism Americas Mental Health Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Twelve-Step Programs United States Substance abuse Money
Exhaustive Research • Historical Significance • Pleasant Voice • Comprehensive Documentation • Spiritual Insights
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I like the story and most of it i had not heard before even though I have been a member for a long time. It is annoying to have a person mimicking Bill’s voice (or other males) just have a male read it.

Annoying voice

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Natasha Soudek does a nice job when she just reads. When she tries to act I find the voices sound roughly the same and. the voice she chooses makes it a bit difficult to distinguish what she is saying at times. Later in the book there is less of this and her performance is the better for it.

As far as the text is concerned it is a nice contribution to the lexicon of AA histories and like several of the works produced in the last couple of decades goes a good way to correcting much of the received view. There are times when Schaberg goes a bit far in making his point. That being said, this account is the most comprehensive as the existing dissertations, conference presentations, articles, online resources, and books produced to this point were each more economical in scope.

There are points where Schaberg falls short of previous work and these are mostly in the area of not addressing source material Wilson used in constructing the text. Instead we get regurgitation of the text. Nowhere is this more evident than his discussion of "We Agnostics." Looking forward to how he would show how certain parts were lifted from other spiritual texts, we get nothing but the "received view." This is particularly disheartening when one considers the extent to which he goes on to try to explain the identity of the typists for the myriad of letters he discusses.

I would suggest this text to AA members and all interested in learning about the fellowship. However, I would suggest that both the written and Audio copies be bought, because the parts that bring really new insights will be fitting to cite to others.

Just read please

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I found that the over is really splitting hairs and under the circumstances at the time this book was all they had to try and help the world with this incurable disease. I was dismayed why they used a woman narrator this is hard to comprehend especially when the narrator trys to emulate a deep mans voice. It seems the author wants more than anything to disprove the the timeline and the motives of most involved.

Splitting Hairs

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Shaberg’s writing style was great. I’m an art historian and a recovering alcoholic. I don’t know if that may have helped me with my total praise and enjoyment for the book. I read and listened to the book at the same time. Most of the time I would listen during my drive to and from work and read what I had listened to the day before. Soudek’s narration of the book at was perfect. She picked up on, and performed perfectly, Shaberg’s subtle humorous and sarcastic writing style. I loved it! It answered many questions and rumors I had about AA. Although, It also created many more questions. Bill Wilson was an amazing man in the book, however Hank Parkhurst was the unsung hero of the book. His life was an eye opener and very sad. Schaberg brings to life the many unknown people who really truly deserve to be remembered. If your a student of AA, like I am, it’s a must read. It’s a tough book, but like the real Big Book it’s a great book.

An amazing historical literary book.

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wood like another v book to cover next 10 years up until first international convention

terrific research

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This book is a TEXT BOOK, and not an easy read. If not for the narrator’s really pleasant voice it would have been really tough to get through it, because I’m just not the textbook type and personally prefer books with a faster pace (even when the content is so important, like in this book!) If you can handle reading complex medical textbooks and research manuals front to back, this will be no problem. There are a lot of really dense footnotes about things that were just too much detail for me and constantly pulled me out of the story. Again: I’m just not the textbook type.

That said, I am blown away by the care and effort and time the author put into researching and putting together this incredibly meaningful and relevant history, and for that reason I did not give up and listened to this audiobook all the way through. I am very grateful for his effort and care. Thank you. I learned some amazing new things about AA’s history and my perspective will never be the same, in a great way.

And again, thank you for the excellent narration, as well.

This is a TEXT BOOK. Be aware!

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every "friend of bill's" is very interested in the core ideas behind aa, the history, the personalities and so on. and there is a lot about that here. my hat is off to the author. but there is also pages, and pages, and pages, AND PAGES, and entire letters, and speculation, and digressions, and side notes, and conjectures, about FUNDRAISING. i get that it was a serious matter and should get some airtime. of course. but seriously, who cares about every freaking last obscure money detail? again, i understand that it is part of the story here but it takes up WAY TOO MUCH real estate. the book is arguably one of the most important spiritual texts of the twentieth century, if not the most. Why is so much emphasis given to money and the foibles of the gilded class? that is NOT the important story here.

too much about fundraising

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The narrator does a good job. Yes she makes all her speakers seem very old, but at least we know that those words are in quotation. Otherwise she would need to say “quote, end quote” which would be much worse. Anyone who loves the big book will enjoy this history, and I find myself excited to listen further for a richer understanding of the text.

Exciting for readers of big book

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What an amazing history of the writing of one of the most important books ever written. Incredibly in depth, I am so happy to have listened to this, I think if a lot of members of AA only knew the amount of work that went into this and also the discussions and debates about the religious aspect people would understand how hard it was to write this book.

Deeply informative!

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This is a well researched historical book. It's sure to ruffle more than a few feathers. A lot of misinformation passed down over the years is mainly because very few ever researched the information such as Schaberg has. They just took it as being true and never questioned much of anything when it came to Bill or Dr. Bob. The absolute truth will never be known so what we are left with is what was more likely rather than less likely. This is the "more likely". The author kept well within the bounds of the title leaving out any of the other questionable dealings going on at the time or as a result of the book. Thus the 5 stars for the Story.
Having a female be the voice of Bill and Bob is at the very least a major distraction if not a slight. Imagine a male narrator for HRC's book! They might want to redo this one.

New (real) History

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