Bill W. and Mr. Wilson: The Legend and Life of A.A.'s Cofounder

"Raphael's complex final judgment of Bill W., and implicitly of A.A. itself, is more than earned by the care and the verve of all that comes before it in this now indispensable book."―Dionysos: Journal of Literature and Addiction

"This exceptionally well-written book on the life of A.A.'s cofounder will deservedly find a wide readership. It is time that the man inside the legend of Bill Wilson was rediscovered. Bill W. and Mr. Wilson achieves that feat."―author of Slaying the Dragon: The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America

"This biography respectfully attempts to pull Bill W. down from his mythical pedestal. Drawing from both primary and major secondary sources, Raphael critically reconsiders what we think we know about the man who started a therapeutic revolution."―Publishers Weekly

"This is the best work I have read on Bill Wilson; it is also one the best introductions to AA―its origins, development, and significance."―Roger Forseth, founding editor of Dionysos: Journal of Literature and Addiction

"Raphael not only interprets the 'big' books about the AA movement and its two founders (Dr. Bob as well as Bill W.), he has also read all the recent scholarship on the subject and uses it scrupulously and judiciously in the formulation of his own views. I think Raphael's book will become the starting point for any subsequent scholarship and/or discussion of the subject."―Deirdre Bair, author of Anais Nin: A Biography

"[I]n a hotel then known as Wilson House I was born, perhaps rightly, in a room just back of the old bar," writes Wilson (1895-1970), cofounder and organizer of Alcoholics Anonymous, in this first published edition of an autobiography he began in 1954. Telling one's story is an important AA tradition. Bill W., as Wilson was known in AA circles, had a reputation for being a good storyteller and had previously recounted much of his life in the Big Book (also titled Alcoholics Anonymous) and other writings. Here, Wilson tells of his childhood, military service, marriage, attempts to stop drinking, and spiritual conversion in 1934 but stops short of his historic meeting with cofounder Dr. Bob. The publisher has added articles, appendixes, and recollections of friends, family, and colleagues to flesh out Wilson's fragmented account. In contrast to Francis Hartigan's recent conventional but comprehensive biography, Bill W. (LJ 2/1/00), Bill W. and Mr. Wilson offers an outsider's "personal impressions and ruminations." Following Wilson's own three-part formula ("what we used to be like, what happened, and what we are like now"), Raphael, an AA member writing under a pseudonym, observes that "what [Bill W.] used to be like scarcely exists outside...the account he first gave in Alcoholics Anonymous and then repeated often." Raphael seeks to distinguish Bill W., cofounder of AA and the Twelve Steps, from Bill Wilson, who "closely guarded his private life during his public career, even as he seemed to bare his soul at AA meetings." Throughout his life, Wilson battled depression, smoked heavily, and had a reputation as a womanizer. Later in life, he participated in LSD research and promoted alternative therapies for alcoholism. As Raphael describes Wilson's life, he traces parallels in the evolution of AA from its origins in the Oxford Group, a religious lay movement, to a worldwide self-help organization of alcoholics helping alcoholics. Both books, while important contributions to the growing literature on Bill W., are supplementary purchases for collections on drug and alcohol abuse."―Library Journal

"Raphael, a pseudonymous Alcoholics Anonymous member who celebrated his thirteenth year of sobriety while writing this book, has not attempted a scholarly biography, though he has consulted archival collections and interviewed a variety of persons. Rather, he aimed to produce a book of "personal impressions and ruminations," and he has generally succeeded. Readers familiar with one or more of the widely differing biographies of Bill W. will find some additional material and some thought-provoking views here. Raphael shows that Bill was influenced by William James' classic study The Varieties of Religious Experience and that he was a lively, egotistic man rather than the saintly figure so often presented by some in A.A. In Raphael's pages, Bill becomes someone to spend an enjoyable evening with, though the urge to give him a kick in the pants might occasionally arise. Raphael's summary view of Bill is that he was intensely aware of his own shortcomings and intensely seeking self-awareness and spiritual discipline."―Booklist

Matthew J. Raphael is a well-established writer and a member of AA.