PBA Galleries

viii, [2], 400 pp. 9x6, original dark blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, facsimile jacket. First Edition, Seventh Printing.

Considered the most difficult printing to find of all the AA Big Books published. It was the last to be issued in a print run of 5000 and in the larger size format. However, since the next print run was only one month later, which up until this time had previously not been done for the AA Big Book, it is believed only 1000 to 1500 copies were printed because the publisher ran likely out of materials due to the wartime efforts / paper shortages (also a reason for the change to the smaller format for subsequent printings). The next printing increased to 20,000. There is an alternative story circulated that most copies of this seventh printing were lost in the Atlantic Ocean when a ship transporting AA books to troops in Europe had sunk. This scenario is unsubstantiated and likely the materials shortage is the reason for the scarcity. Copies rarely show up on market.