UMass Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press

The Legend and Life of A.A.’s Cofounder

Book Jacket: "Bill W. and Mr. Wilson" by M. J. Raphael
Matthew J. Raphael

A cultural biography of the man who launched the twelve-step movement

William Griffith Wilson, cited by Time magazine as one of the hundred most influential individuals of the twentieth century, is better known as Bill W., cofounder of Alcoholics Anonymous. In this book, Matthew J. Raphael, himself a member of A.A. (and writing here under a pseudonym, in accordance with A.A.’s tradition of anonymity), presents a revealing new look at both the legendary Bill W. and the private Mr. Wilson, who tried to live apart from his own celebrity.

In quest of a more historically accurate and complete account, Raphael separates fact from fiction in the standard biographies of Wilson and finds reason to doubt the literal truth of some foundational AA stories. He also provides a context for Wilson's (and thus AA's) key ideas in the work of William James, Carl Jung, and other modern thinkers. What emerges is an unvarnished portrait of a charismatic man and social visionary, whose true greatness is all the more apparent in view of his human imperfections.

Readers already familiar with Alcoholics Anonymous will find much to engage them. Others will discover AA and its cofounder from an insider's perspective.

"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."

William L. White, 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 book I have read on Bill Wilson; it is also one of the best introductions to A.A.—its origins, development, and significance."

Roger Forseth, professor emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Superior

"Raphael not only interprets the ‘big’ books about the A.A. 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 Anaïs Nin: A Biography

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

Biography / American Studies / Recovery
224 pp.
LC 99-086304
$22.95t paper, ISBN 1-55849-360-3
2002
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