Written by AA cofounder William G. Wilson (''Bill W.'') with help from cofounder Robert H. Smith (''Dr. Bob'') and other early members, and published in 1939, the large Book has offered greater than 21 million copies. It has been translated into forty three languages. Yet you don't see it in bookstores. They will get the e book, however it's normally ordered instantly from AA World Services, the writer. In 62 years, the value has risen, of course: from $3.50 to $5.

Until now, the big Book had been revised solely twice: in 1955 and 1976. Now the fourth version is simply off the press, and its painstaking revision is a window into the delicacy of tinkering with a e-book that many individuals revere as inspired scripture.

AA was founded in 1935. When there have been about a hundred members, Wilson and Smith determined they needed a textual content if the motion had been to proceed to grow. Wilson wrote most of the first 164 pages, outlining the philosophy, rules, and method, and collaborated with Smith and the other members in pulling collectively the remainder of the book, which consists of 42 personal testimonies of recovered alcoholics.

The first version's tales have been principally by white men, coming out of the world of the teenagers, 1920s, and Great Depression. But since AA was open to all, different kinds of people began to hitch: extra girls, Indians, African-Americans. So in 1955 Wilson revised the e-book himself (Smith died in 1950), leaving the primary 164 pages alone, however substituting many new stories, from a newly assorted membership, for old ones. Wilson died in 1971, and a number of other years later the guide was revised a second time, by a committee. Again tales had been modified, but once more the first 164 pages were left alone.

The new edition retains 16 tales from previous editions, including a number of by the pioneers, and provides 24 new ones. Once again, nonetheless, the first 164 pages had been left untouched. Why not revise those pages? As explained by Richard, of Chicago, a educated historian who chaired the revision committee, ''In the culture of AA, you do not mess with the phrases of the founding members. We had to be clear that the part written for all time was not what we have been working on.''

The significance of the large Book to most dedicated AA members can hardly be overstated. (It's also used by many different addiction-fighting teams, equivalent to Overeaters Anonymous.) Of their varied methods, they belief it they usually find it irresistible. 'When they provide it to you,'' says David, 39, of Boston, ''they are saying, `It's terribly written, and it'll save your life.' Whenever you read the first 164 pages, it's unvarnished midcentury prose: clunky, awkward, and quite wonderful, filled with phrases you can't imagine anyone writing anytime after World War I, not to mention 1939. But underneath the odd wording and clunkiness is that this fundamental message of hope.''

''It actually did save my life,'' says Margaret, 43, of Brookline. ''How did they ever put these phrases together to make it so highly effective? None of the tales put me off. I didn't assume it was hokey. I soaked it up and identified with every sentence. It grips you if you are an alcoholic.'' While there may be unanimity on the first 164 pages, there is none in regards to the tales. ''After i first bought it,'' says Dave, 26, of Somerville, ''I read the tales. Now I don't look on the stories. When I'm in a nasty house, I have a tougher time referring to them.''

But others have a deep commitment to certain ones. Michael, of Brookline, was crestfallen when it appeared that a classic story, ''Doctor, Alcoholic, Addict,'' had been excluded from the new version. ''There are two paragraphs about acceptance, on Page 449,'' he stated sadly, ''that I learn every morning.'' He was relieved to find that it was only renamed, ''Acceptance Was the answer,'' and moved (449 is now 417). His bond with that one web page is just not unusual. AA members are likely to know what is meant by a reference to ''Page 449'' or ''Page 83.''

Revising the big Book was subsequently a dicey affair, although Richard says it helped that the first 164 pages had been strictly off limits, however dated their tone, slang, and social assumptions. ''AA is of necessity historic,'' he says. ''Without that, there is a danger of amnesia about what went on before, of devaluing this sense of expertise.'' Leaving the first part untouched means that every new member in a sense meets Bill W. and Dr. Bob personally.

But in the committee, there was no consensus on the tales, which constitute 80 % of the e-book. So the committee decided to analysis Wilson's writings to seek out out his perspective towards the guide - much as constitutional students dig into what James Madison or John Adams meant by ''high crimes and misdemeanors.'' They discovered, says Richard, that ''Bill at all times noticed the ebook as organic and dynamic, never locked in. The book was not for those of us who have been already right here. That was chilly water for many. Individuals who had been in AA for 30 years said, `But you can't take out that story - it is my favorite.' But we needed to say, `We don't care. You're sober now. We want to alter it for the new people.''' Even so, a lot of the oldest tales partly One, ''Pioneers of AA,'' were saved, together with ''Dr.Bob's Nightmare'' and ''The Keys to the Kingdom,'' by a former flapper of the Roaring Twenties.

The brand new revisers determined to invite the fellowship (1.4 million members in the United States and Canada) to submit stories. More than 1,200 tales got here in, and over a yr's time they were winnowed to 24. One criterion for the brand new selections was higher diversity, although Richard stated the AA means of claiming that was ''a broad cross-section of sharing.'' He says, ''AA as we speak is youthful, more feminine, more brown and black, extra gay.'' The brand new storytellers include a number of American Indians (although an older Indian story, ''Join the Tribe!,'' written in painfully stereotypical dialect, was dropped), Jews, African-Americans (together with a pioneer), a gay man and a lesbian, and several younger folks.

Some AA members have an exaggerated reverence for the e-book, including those often known as ''Big Book Thumpers,'' who imagine that in it are the solutions to all life's issues. Some name it AA's Bible, which Richard, speaking only for himself, resists. ''Some members see it as divinely impressed,'' he says. ''They believe that Bill was given this e-book not by his intellectual discovery, however as a delivered text. Some have come close to putting Bill and Dr. Bob on a pedestal: Whatever they said is the literal fact. The book is an aesthetic and a information. Those who need to show it into a literal manual of life transfer it in a path distant from life.''

About 1,000,000 copies of the massive Book are distributed every year in English alone, and the growth of Alcoholics Anonymous is accelerating worldwide. ''AA is meant to be for humankind, not bounded by people in New York or Akron,'' Richard says. ''Within the final 20 years it has spread rapidly in cultures very different from our own. In India, AA is poised to turn out to be an enormous phenomenon. In the next few years, the vast majority of AAs may be Asian.'' In that event, the fourth version of the massive Book could have a much shorter life than its predecessors.

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