Comments on the brief 12Step.com Article on origins of A.A. Twelve Steps

Here is my reply to an article by 12Step.com on the history and origins on the origins and development of the A.A. Twelve Steps:

Congratulations on the temperate quality of your short articles on A.A., the Steps, and the origins.

I would add only these more comprehensive caveats and comments.

1. Dr. Bob stated that the basic ideas for the Twelve Steps came from the study and effort in the Bible. See DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers and Dick B.., The Good Book and the Big Book: A.A.’s Roots in the Bible www.dickb.com/goodbook.shtml and The James Club and the Original A.A. Program’s Absolute Essentials www.dickb.com/JamesClub.shtml
2. If you take Bill Wilson at his word—and I do on this point—the Steps that he introduced in the Big Book four years after A.A. was founded (the Big Book in April 1939 to be exact), Bill stated that of the Twelve Steps, the first should be attributed to Dr. William D. Silkworth. The second and twelfth to Professor William James. And “the rest of it” to the Oxford Group as led in American writing and teachings by Rev. Samuel M. Shoemaker, Jr., chief OG lieutenant in America. See Bill’s Grapevine Writings in The Language of the Heart and Dick B., Twelve Steps for You www.dickb.com/12stepsforyou.shtml, and New Light on Alcoholism: God, Sam Shoemaker, and A.A. www.dickb.com/newlight.shtml.
3. Then there is the indisputable and commonly accepted journal kept by Dr. Bob’s wife Anne Ripley Smlth. www.dickb.com/annesm.shtml. Anne shared this journal (compiled between 1933 and 1939) with Bill and Bob, with early AAs, and regularly with the early AAs and their families who gathered at the Smith home each morning to participate in the Quiet Time meetings conducted on the porch of the Smith home by Anne Smith. You can find that, before the Steps were either contemplated or written by Bill W., the ideas are discussed extensively by Anne Smith and her journal.