Beschreibung:

Title: Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than Fourteen Thousand Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism Author: [Wilson, William (Bill W.)] Place: New York Publisher: Works Publishing Co. Date: [January], 1945 Description: viii, [2], 400 pp. 9x6, original dark blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, facsimile jacket for the 7th printing. First Edition, Seventh printing. Considered the most difficult printing to find of all the AA Big Books published. It was the last to be issued in a print run of 5000 and in the larger size format. However, since the next print run was only one month later, which up until this time had previously not been done for the AA Big Book, it is believed only 1000 to 1500 copies were printed because the publisher ran out of materials due to the wartime efforts / paper shortages (also a reason for the change to the smaller format for subsequent printings). The next printing increased to 20,000. Also, purportedly, there is a story that most copies of this seventh printing were lost in the Atlantic Ocean when a ship transporting AA books to troops in Europe had sunk. But, this is unsubstantiated and likely the materials shortage is the reason for the scarcity. Copies rarely show up on market; no copies in ABPC auction records for the past twenty-five years and none found at several other public sources consulted. Lot Amendments Condition: Rubbed from lots of handling chiefly at spine (affecting gilt lettering), ends a bit bumped; binding slightly shaken, mild offsetting to front endpapers and pp. 96-97, small brown spots to pp. 2-5, signed “Mr. and Mrs. Alex Bodak, 1751 East 30th St.” on front free endpaper; else good. A key printing for any AA book collection. Item number: 193317