Not-God (55 page)

42
    
AACA
, p. 63; Thomsen, p. 224;
LM
, [p. 6].

43
    Thomsen, p. 224;
cf. AACA
, p. 63; description of Silkworth’s facial mannerisms from Lois Wilson, interview of 7 April 1977.

44
    
AACA
, p. 64 (italics Wilson’s).

45
    
AACA
, p. 64 (italics Wilson’s).

46
    Biographical information on Silkworth is drawn from
The National Cyclopedia of American Biography
(New York: James T. White Co., 1954), vol. 39, p. 299; obituary,
NYT
, 23 March 1951; A.A. archive copy of his “Application for Appointment to the Courtesy Staff of the Knickerbocker Hospital,” filled out in Silkworth’s hand and dated 28 April 1945; and the
AAGV
obituary tribute, “The Little Doctor Who Loved Drunks,”
AAGV
7:12 (May 1951), 2–8.

47
    
AAGV. op. cit.
, 7; “A Doctor’s Opinion,”
AA
, p. xxvii. That Wilson received these ideas from, and attributed them to, Silkworth, is clear from Wilson, tr., and all the printed sources; also with somewhat greater detail and analysis from Wilson to Howard C., 4 January 1956; to Helen C., 9 April 1962; to Bert B., 19 October 1965;
cf
. also “After Twenty-Five Years — by Bill,”
AAGV
16:10 (March 1960), 22.

48
    
AA
, p. xxvii;
AAGV
“The Little Doctor,” 7; W. D. Silkworth, “Alcoholism as a Manifestation of Allergy,”
Medical Record
(New York), 145; 249-251 (1937);
cf
. also W. D. Silkworth, “A New Approach to Psychotherapy in Chronic Alcoholism,”
The Journal-Lancet
(Minneapolis) 59: 312-314 (1939); William D. Silkworth, “A Highly Successful Approach to the Alcoholic Problem,”
Medical Record
(New York), 154: 105-110 (1941).

49
    The classic and perhaps still most authoritative treatment of the idea that alcoholism is a disease is E. M. Jellinek,
The Disease Concept of Alcoholism
(New Haven: College and University Press, 1960); the most overtly historical treatment, although undertaken and carried out from a sociological point of view, is A. E. Wilkerson,
A History of the Concept of Alcoholism as a Disease
, unpublished dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1966, University Microfilms #67:188; the most recent review of the concept and literature is Mark Keller, “The Disease Concept of Alcoholism Revisited,”
JSA
37: 1694-1717 (1976); but
cf
. also Bruce Holley Johnson,
The Alcoholic Movement in America: A Study in Cultural Innovation
(unpublished dissertation, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1973), for a sociological study of shifts in cultural understanding of the concept of alcoholism. The continuing complexity of medical thought on this question, and perhaps the unconscious profundity of Wilson’s “heart disease” analogy, may be gathered from perusal of the research reported in Kissin-Begleiter and Tarter-Sugerman,
cf
. note #3 above: and even more deeply from the first four volumes of the series of which the Kissin-Begleiter cited is vol. 5.

50
    
AA
, p. 28.

51
    William James,
The Varieties of Religious Experience
(New York: Mentor, 1958), p. 213. Lecture 9 is titled “Conversion,” Lecture 10, “Conversion-concluded.” As difficult as it is to prove a negative, I am certain that the word “deflation” does not occur in
VRE;
likewise that only most slowly, warily, and late was Wilson able to speak with any comfort of “conversion.” On this latter, he was more at ease with his New York alcoholics’ joking over his “hot flash” than with any more exact reference to his “conversion experience” — interview with Lois Wilson, 7 April 1977; interview with Marty Mann, 15 November 1977. Wilson did speak openly of his “experience of conversion” in his 1939 Rockland State Hospital presentation: I suspect this might be why this first public talk to a group of doctors was so assiduously ignored by Wilson and therefore by those following him.

52
    Wilson, tr., p. 133: “By nightfall, this Harvard professor, long in his grave had, without anyone knowing it, become a founder of Alcoholics Anonymous;”
cf
. also the analysis following, tr., pp. 133-134. Wilson frequently and avidly recommended
VRE
to correspondents telling of difficulty with the A.A. program or concern over their “spiritual experience”:
cf.
, e.g., Wilson to Marion R., 21 January 1952; to Paul H., 28 October 1954; to Mel B., 2 July 1956; to Ed. B., 28 July 1958.
VRE
heads the list of six titles of “Spiritual Reading Bill and early A.A.’s found helpful” (Box 31, Folder 19.2, A.A. archives). Jim B., “Evolution,” p. 3, notes about the writing of
AA:
“Bill probably got most of his ideas from one of these books, James’ ‘Varieties of Religious Experiences’ [sic].” Two recent interpretations of James may deepen the understanding of the thoughtful reader concerning the affinity of his ideas for the insight of Alcoholics Anonymous;
cf
. John E. Smith,
Purpose and Thought: The Meaning of Pragmatism
(New Haven: Yale, 1978), especially within
chapters 3
and
6
; William Barrett,
The Illusion of Technique
(New York: Anchor-Doubleday, 1978), especially pp. 253-294.

53
    On the one occasion when he was asked, by a Fordham University philosophy professor, to explain more exactly his use of James, Wilson answered cautiously and defensively, but in terms that support my interpretation: “While I cannot pinpoint the particular part of the ‘Varieties’ I vividly remember that in general the experiences described, whatever their variety, did often arise out of conditions of complete hopelessness — exactly my own just prior to the illumination.” Wilson to Rev. Robert J. Roth, S.J., 12 November 1965;
cf
. Robert J. Roth, "William James and Alcoholics Anonymous,”
America
113: 48-50 (1965).

The quotations are from
AA
, p. 95; p. xxi (foreword to 2nd ed., 1955).

54
    For a sensitive interpretation of William James’s personal history that the reader aware of Wilson’s personal history may find especially provocative,
cf.
Cushing Strout, “The Pluralistic Identity of William James,”
American Quarterly
23: 135-152 (1971).

For non-American advertences to A.A. revealing this point,
cf
. R. Bircher, “‘A.A.’ Alcoholics Anonymous oder das Budnis der ‘Namenloser Trinker’” (‘“A.A. Alcoholics Anonymous or the alliance of nameless drinkers”),
Wendepunkt
, Zurich, 23: 214-220 (1946);

G. Mouchot, “Alcoholics Anonymous. Lettre de’Angleterre” (“Alcoholics Anonymous. A Letter from England”),
Concurs medical
76: 1863-1864 (1954);

P. Bensoussan and E. M. Villiaumey, “Le movement ‘alcoholiques anonymes,’ structure et dynamique; essai d’adaptation aux malades en cure de desintoxication” (“The Alcoholics Anonymous movement, its structure and dynamics; attempted adaptation to patients during detoxification treatment”).
Annales medical-psychologiques
, 114: 280-289 (1956);

Joseph Kessel,
Avec les Alcoholiques Anonymes
(Paris: Libraire Gallinard, 1960), U.S. ed. titled
The Road Back
, trans. Frances Partridge (New York: Knopf, 1962);

P. Borghes and E. Medaglini, “A proposita di una forma di psicoterpia di gruppo nell alcoolismo cronico; considerazioni critichi su l’Alcoholics Anonymous” (“Concerning a type of group therapy in chronic alcoholism: critical observations on Alcoholics Anonymous”),
Rass. Stud, psichiat.
, 54: 79-92 (1965);

R. K. Jones, “Sectarian Characteristics of Alcoholics Anonymous,”
Sociology
(Oxford), 4: 181-195 (1970).

55
    
AACA
, p. 65; Thomsen, pp. 232-233; “A Fragment of History — by Bill,”
AAGV
10:2 (July 1953), 6-9. For the depth of Shoemaker’s friendship with Wilson,
cf
. his speech at A.A.’s 1955 “Coming of Age” convention, reprinted in
AACA
, pp. 261-271. Shoemaker’s role in the Oxford Group will be treated in
Chapter Two
. On Wilson’s deep sense of the OG as a source of Alcoholics Anonymous,
cf
. Wilson to Charles P., 1 July 1938. This witness is specially significant because it comes from the time when Wilson had just painfully split his nascent New York group from its OG connection.

56
    
AACA
, p. 65; Thomsen, pp. 232-233. The interpretation in this paragraph is based on my own investigation of the Oxford Group —
cf
. citations in
Chapter Two
— and on interviews with Lois Wilson (7 April 1977) and Henrietta Seiberling (6 April 1977).

57
    Thomsen, pp. 232-233; Lois Wilson, interviews of 16 November 1976 and 7 April 1977. Whether Bill started bringing alcoholics home to Clinton Street now or only after his late 1935 return from Akron is veiled by conflicting memories, including Wilson’s own. I follow Thomsen in finding the practice beginning in very early 1935. Although Lois Wilson “tends to think” it was only later when answering to this directly, some of her own recollections of circumstances indicate otherwise — interviews cited. The “neighborhood cafeteria” was Stewart’s, in the neighborhood of the Calvary Church Mission rather than Bill’s at Clinton Street.

58
    That “all but Bill himself got drunk” is clearest from Wilson, “Memo,” where he delineates the history of those who later sobered up again and finally did “get the program” — because some did, other commentators have been confused about the total nature of the failure here.

Wilson always referred to Lois’s job as “at Macy’s” or “clerking in a department store.” Lois left Macy’s in March of 1934. When she returned to work in September of 1934, it was at Loeser’s, also a department store, but one which now promised her work “as an interior decorator” after a probationary period in draperies. That Bill felt demeaned by his wife working is understandable, but this has led others such as Thomsen to place misguided emphasis on Lois’s “having to work.” Whether or not she was at this time about to give up on Bill (and she denies this), Lois cherished the idea of a career in interior decorating as creative and fulfilling. After leaving Loeser’s in 1936, she did some such work on her own, and her present home bears witness to her talent and ability in this field. (Lois Wilson, interviews of 16 November 1976 and 7 April 1977).

The hypothetical alternative explored in this paragraph was gently probed by this writer with Lois: beyond the wryly smiling statement: “Well, I didn’t have much use for the Oxford Group: I didn’t think I needed ‘conversion,’” Lois declined to speak further of her thoughts at this time (
idem
).

59
    AACA, pp. 67-68;
cf
. “A Fragment of History — by Bill,”
AAGV
10:2 (July 1953), 6-9; Thomsen, pp. 233-234.

60
    Lois Wilson, interview of 7 April 1977;
cf. AACA
, p. 65; Thomsen, p. 234.

61
    
AACA
, p. 65; Thomsen, p. 235.

62
    The incident, the narration of which begins here, is the self-consciously supreme moment of A.A. history — often lengthily and romantically described. The basic narration is Wilson’s in
AACA
, pp. 65-70; Thomsen, using all the Wilson sources, covers the ground on pp. 235-240. My retelling is based directly on the sources used by Wilson and Thomsen, supplemented by the Seiberling sources and interview memories of Dr. Smith described and evaluated in the “Notes on Sources.”

Citations will be offered here and in the following paragraphs only to support my addition to or changes of the Wilson-Thomsen narrations.

For Bill’s frame of mind, an obvious source often overlooked:
AA
, p. 154.

Except for Lois herself, there remains no witness who could offer testimony on the quality of her and Bill’s marriage during the difficult years up to 1935. Yet Lois’s memories do have some documentation, and the present research enjoyed access to some of that documentation —
cf
. Bibliography, below, p. 417. Based on these sources, and also what Lois told me (interview of 24 January 1979) was to appear in her autobiography,
Lois Remembers
, which is scheduled for publication in mid-1979, and because of questions asked by readers of the earlier version of the present book, it seems appropriate to add here a few words about the state of the Wilsons’ marriage in 1935.

Lois insists that she never thought of leaving Bill. Indeed, despite his drinking, Lois felt for the first fifteen years of their marriage that it was her contribution to the relationship that was deficient. Both Lois and Bill wanted children, but doctors discovered after two ectopic pregnancies that Lois suffered from a congenital defect that prevented her from ever bearing a child. Lois was grateful for, but at times worried about, Bill’s continuing acceptance of and love for her despite this disappointment. It seems clear that some coolness did develop between the Wilsons in the early 1930s, but it is even more clear that both strove mightily to make their marriage work — except for Bill’s drinking and the episodes that followed from it. After Bill attained sobriety, the Wilsons’ marriage improved — briefly. Soon new tensions developed, and it is the description of these — and their resolution — that Lois’s autobiography is expected to explore. Many of Bill’s published writings as well as his letters offer hints about his understanding of the problems in his marriage. Some of these will be noted, as appropriate, in the narration and notes that follow.

63
    Henrietta Seiberling, “Origins,” [p. 3]. Wilson and others, especially Mrs. Seiberling, stress the “coincidence” and “Providence” in Bill’s choosing Tunks, especially because it was a Presbyterian minister in Akron who most actively supported and championed the OG. (According to Mrs. S., interview of 6 April 1976, he was on Tunks’s list, but was “too busy preparing his sermon to speak with Bill.”) Given Bill’s dearth of experience with organized religion and his new friendship with Sam Shoemaker, I find his choice logical.