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Foreword

DEAR FRIENDS:

This volume includes several hundred excerpts from our literature, touching nearly every aspect of A.A.’s way of life. It is felt that this material may become an aid to individual meditation and a stimulant to group discussion, and may well lead to a still wider reading of all our literature.

Over the past twenty-five years, it has been my privilege to write these books about A.A.: the text of “Alcoholics Anonymous,” “Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions,” “Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age,” and “Twelve Concepts for World Service,” the last as part of our “Third Legacy Manual.” * Many pieces have been written for our monthly magazine, the A.A. Grapevine, and I have always carried on a large personal correspondence.

These are the chief sources from which the content was chosen for this volume. Because the quotations used were lifted out of their original context, it has been necessary in the interest of clarity to edit, and sometimes to rewrite, a number of them.

Of course, all this material reflects my personal viewpoint on A.A.’s way of life. As such, it is bound to have its limitations and imperfections. Nevertheless, one may hope that this new publication will meet a genuine need.

Ever devotedly,

April 1967

* “The Third Legacy Manual” has been revised and retitled “The A.A. Service Manual.” “Twelve Concepts for World Service” was published separately for twelve years but has once again been com bined with the manual, beginning with the 1981-82 edition.