- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; First Edition edition (Mar 16 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0312200560
- ISBN-13: 978-0312200565
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.7 x 2.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 544 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,160,449 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Bill Wilson (1895-1971), the cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous, never saw himself as a saint. In a biography that is admiring without being hagiographic, first-time author Hartigan, one-time assistant to Bill's wife, Lois, reveals a man whose accomplishments seem all the more extraordinary because his demons were so strong. A depressive, a chronic womanizer, a man who could not quit smoking even as he choked to death from emphysema, Wilson was, according to Hartigan, motivated by real spiritual sincerity and purity of purpose when it came to AA. At 39, on the edge of death from alcoholism, Wilson was "struck sober" in an incandescent moment when he felt surrounded by divine presence. Inspired by the Oxford Group, a Christian movement that sought to kindle such experiences, the famous 12 steps that Wilson developed led to gradual spiritual transformation. This approach was built not on white light but on Wilson's bone-deep sense that life without a higher power was unmanageable. Wilson was born in a small town in Vermont to parents who divorced and scattered, leaving the boy to be raised by loving grandparents who could not assuage the permanent wound to Wilson's self-esteem. After the death of his high school girlfriend, the handsome, talented Wilson fell into an almost catatonic despair, a foreshadowing of the depression and self-doubt that would descend on him even at the height of his fame. Frank about Wilson's experiments with LSD, religion and psychotherapy, this unofficial bio will do much to help a wide readership appreciate how Wilson exemplified the way in which weakness can lead us to exhibit extraordinary strength. (Mar.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This intensely personal biography of Bill Wilson and the worldwide organization he cofounded looks at the man and the movement from the inside out. Hartigan, former secretary to Wilson's wife, Lois, used interviews with people close to Wilson to write this first full-dress treatment of him. Wilson's great insight was recognizing that alcohol was an illness that no one can conquer alone. Yet he lived a lonely life and has remained an elusive figure--until now. Hartigan repeats the well-known tale of Wilson's slide from successful stock analyst to drunken despair and his resurrection after cofounding AA. But he also paints a picture of a conflicted Wilson, at once arrogant and insecure, loyal to his friends yet unfaithful to his wife, sober but depressed. Despite a popular-magazine style, this book makes a long stride toward understanding the appeal of Wilson and AA's 12-step program. Recommended.
-Randall M. Miller, St. Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
-Randall M. Miller, St. Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
The thing people who knew Bill Wilson seem to admire the most about him was his mind. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
The thing people who knew Bill Wilson seem to admire the most about him was his mind. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
"We are not saints",
By
This review is from: Bill W.: A Biography of Alcoholics Anonymous Cofounder Bill Wilson (Hardcover)
"Bill W." I feel is a very good book about Bill Wilson and even though I did not like reading it the first time, I read it again with an open mind. It helped me understand the man and why he was able to become co-founder of AA and write the Big Book "Alcoholics Anonymous." If he did not have problems, he would not have been able to do this, and in reading "Bill W.", it has helped me understand what we all go through in life. Be as honest as possible today, do the next right thing and remember "We are not saints."
4.0 out of 5 stars
All the lowdown on Bill,
By
This review is from: Bill W.: A Biography of Alcoholics Anonymous Cofounder Bill Wilson (Hardcover)
Fascinating book, though I felt just a bit naughty reading all the "hot gossip" that Hartigan dispenses. He obviously knows all the insiders, though, and I suppose it's important to have all this stuff written down while the old-timers are still around who remembers AA's earliest days.There are some peculiar errors: on p 61, Hartigan describes Bill's entering Towns Hospital on his sobriety date, Nov. 11, 1934. But on p. 55, he describes the ill-fated golf trip to Staten Island (which happened several weeks or months before Bill got sober) as also taking place on Nov. 11, 1934: clearly not just a typo, since the point of this story is that it took place on Armistice Day. Something is wrong here, and I'm still trying to figure it out! It's unfortunate that this book has the same title as Robert Thomsen's much more comprehensive (and better, in my view) bio of Bill W., and might be confused with it.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bill W.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Bill W.: A Biography of Alcoholics Anonymous Cofounder Bill Wilson (Hardcover)
A well written and enlightening biography. It was helpful to learn of Bill W.'s struggle and real character. It gives validation and hope to those of us who are struggling with many of the same issues.
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