Together, 16 volumes. Each paginated viii, [2], 400 pp. The first 7 are 23x15 cm. (9x6”), the last 9 are 20.3x13 cm. (8¼x5½”), original cloth, in the original dust jackets. The first 14 published by Works Publishing Co., the last 2 by Alcoholics Anonymous Publishing Co.
Comprises:
* Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One Hundred Men Have Recovered from Alcoholism. Red cloth lettered in gilt, jacket, custom red cloth box with black morocco labels. First Edition, First printing. Signed on the front free endpaper by Dr. R.S. Bookhammer, Rev. A.F. Greene, and Rodney Elder. (Jacket with fading, split along folds, old tape repairs, small chips to spine ends and corners, spine label; faint tape residue to covers, offset to endpapers). 1939.
* Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than Two Thousand Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism. Blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, jacket. First Edition, Second Printing. Ownership signature of Carl Pederson on the front endpaper. (Jacket spine faded, a few tears and chips; rubbing to volume spine lettering). 1941.
*Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than Six Thousand Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism. Blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, jacket. First Edition, Third Printing. (Jacket worn, soiled, creasing, several large chips). 1942.
* Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than Eight Thousand Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism. Dark blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, jacket. First Edition, Fourth Printing. (Jacket soiled, darkened with some staining, chips to spine ends and corners; volume spine lettering a bit rubbed, foxing to page edges). 1943.
* Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than Ten Thousand Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism. Light blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, jacket. First Edition, Fifth Printing. (Jacket spine faded, some chipping to ends and elsewhere, a few edge tears, circular stain to front panel; volume spine head darkened and rubbed, a little rubbing to lettering; bookplate of Wm. D. Green). 1944.
* Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than Ten Thousand Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism. Dark blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, jacket. First Edition, Sixth Printing. (Some soiling to jacket, minor extremity wear; volume spine foot chipped, head rubbed, shaken). 1944.
* Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than Fourteen Thousand Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism. Dark blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, jacket. First Edition, Seventh Printing. (Jacket with chips to spine ends, a few tears including across front panel, 1½” square missing from lower corner of front panel, 2x3” triangle piece missing front lower corner of rear panel; ownership signature of A.D. Olsen on front endpaper). 1945.
* Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than Fourteen Thousand Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism. Dark blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, jacket. First Edition, Eighth Printing. (Jacket with some soiling and light foxing, chips along top edge). 1945.
* Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism. Dark blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, jacket. First Edition, Ninth Printing. (Jacket with some edge wear; rubberstamp of Dr. J. Bernard Poindexter to the edges of the text block and the pastedowns). 1946.
* Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism. Dark blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, jacket. First Edition, Tenth Printing. (Just a little edge and extremity wear to jacket, mild soiling). 1946.
* Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism. Dark blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, jacket. First Edition, Eleventh Printing. (Minor soiling and extremity wear to jacket, price 3.50 penciled on front panel). 1947.
* Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism. Dark blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, jacket. First Edition, Twelfth Printing. Two owners’ inscriptions on the front free endpaper. (Jacket with two chips to top and bottom corners of front panel, a few smaller chips and a few short tears). 1948.
* Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism. Dark blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, jacket. First Edition, Thirteenth Printing. (Jacket with light stain to center of front panel, spine and portion of rear panel, a few chips and short tears; volume spine lettering rubbed). 1950.
* Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism. Dark blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, jacket. First Edition, Fourteenth Printing. (Fading to jacket spine, a little wear to ends, ½x1” piece missing front top left of front panel). 1951.
* Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism. Dark blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, jacket. First Edition, Fifteenth Printing. (Edge wear to jacket, light staining to rear panel). 1954.
* Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How Many Thousands of Men and Women Have Recovered from Alcoholism. Dark blue cloth, spine lettered in gilt, jacket. First Edition, Sixteenth Printing. Ink signatures of 36 persons on the front endpapers, undoubtedly AA members. (Light dampstaining to jacket; rubbing to volume spine lettering. 1954.
The sixteen printings of the first edition of the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Books, one of the most important and influential texts of the 20th century, offering hope to many thousands who sought succor from the scourge of alcoholism, and presenting a solid path to sobriety. Each of these volumes is in the original dust jacket, including the rare first edition, first printing (of which only a reported 4,760 of the 5,000 copies ordered were printed due to a shortage of paper), and the incredibly elusive seventh printing. This latter is 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 likely ran 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. Regardless of the actual reason or its scarcity, copies rarely show up on market, and are excessively rare in the original dust jacket. A rare assemblage.