Chapter 1: Bill's Story - Summary

Bill's drinking career began when he went off to war as a young officer in World War I.  He was a part of the world and he drank socially as a celebration of life.  But his drinking spilled over into those times when he was feeling lonely. 

When he returned from war, he felt like the world was his oyster.  He was a leader and he would go out and prove to the world that he was someone.  He began a law program, but his drinking got in the way.  He nearly failed his law course, and was too drunk at one of his finals to think or write.  His wife was concerned but he assured her that all the great minds had their inspiration while drunk.  By the time he completed his law course, he realized that the law was not for him.

While in school, he worked for a surety company that introduced him to Wall Street.  He was drawn to the markets and began to save money with his wife to invest in some securities.  He achieved success but was unable to find a job.  So he went on a road trip with his wife to do research on various markets.  The reports he made landed him a position on Wall Street and he began to know great success.  He had arrived.

During his rise in wealth he made a number of fair weather friends.  But over time his drinking began to grow more serious, continuing all day and almost every night.  Fights broke out between him and his friends and he became a lone wolf.  His marriage grew strained under the pressure of the drinking.

In 1929, he began to golf.  He went to the country with his wife to conquer the game, but the game ended up conquering him.  The sport permitted him to drink constantly.  He spent money hand over fist during that time until one day he learned that the stock market had crashed.  He was finished financially.  While others despaired, he went to the bar and got good and drunk.

He made a call to a friend in Montreal and moved to Canada with his wife to await the market's return.  But his drinking caught up to him and his friend soon kicked them out.  They were forced to move in with his wife's parents.  Although Bill found a job, he soon lost it while brawling with a taxi driver.  He was unemployed the next five years and hardly sober during that time.  His wife began to work in a department store only to come home exhausted to find her husband drunk.

Liquor was no longer a luxury but a necessity.  He would try to work deals, but all the money went straight to paying his bar tabs.  He still thought he could get under control and there were periods of sobriety that gave his wife hope.  But gradually things got worse.  His mother-in-law died, his father-in-law became ill, and the house was taken over by the mortgage holder.  He got a promising business opportunity, but he went on a bender and lost the chance.

He woke up determined to be sober, and in spite of having meant it he was drunk shortly thereafter.  He renewed his resolve and tried again.  This time he was able to stay sober a bit longer and confidence turned into cockiness and he once again found himself drunk.  He started to think of suicide and feel he was hopeless.  He drank to obtain oblivion over his hopelessness at being an alcoholic.  One night he was so bad he had to drag his mattress downstairs for fear he'd jump.

A doctor came and gave him a sedative to help, but he soon found himself drinking both gin and sedative.  His family put him in a well known treatment center and he began to improve.  He learned about alcoholism and the difficulties that alcoholics have with control, in spite of having control in other areas of their lives.  And he thought this self-knowledge was the solution - but it wasn't.  He was soon drunk again. 

After a time he returned to the hospital and was told that either he would die or be forced to go to the asylum.  It was a devastating blow to his ego.  He thought of his poor wife, wishing he could make amends, but that was over.  He sunk into a quicksand of self-pity.  He had met his match.  Alcohol was his master.  He had been overwhelmed.

Trembling, he left the hospital.  Fear kept him sober for a bit, but the fateful day came when alcohol won out once more.  Everyone became resigned to the certainty that he would either need to be locked up or he would die.  But little did he know this was the beginning of his last binge.

One day as he was pondering hiding a bottle of gin next to the bed to make it through the night, the phone rang.  It was an old drinking buddy who wanted to meet up for lunch.  Bill was excited because he would have someone with whom he could drink and recount better days.  But when the friend arrived, Bill discovered that he no longer was a drinker.

The friend explained that he had found religion.  He explained that he was approached by two men who had persuaded a judge to suspend commitment to an asylum on the basis that they had a simple spiritual program that might work to help him.  And two months later the friend was sober, and was coming to pass on the word to Bill.  He talked for hours and Bill struggled with his qualms with religion.  While Bill was not an atheist, he had a strong antipathy for organized religion. 

But Bill listened as his friend declared that God had done for him what he could not do for himself.  His human will had failed, and then God had in effect raised him from the dead.  Bill realized that here sat a miracle in front of him, but he still felt anitpathy at the word God.  But then the friend said the magic words that helped Bill reconcile his issues with religion with his desire to recover:  "Why don't you choose your own conception of God?"  And Bill stood in sunlight at last.  "It was only a matter of being willing to believe in a Power greater than myself.  Nothing more was required of me to make my beginning."

Bill realized that he wanted God, and that was enough for God to arrive into his life.  He went to the hospital to dry up and offered himself to God.  He did not drink again for the rest of his life.  He worked the step with his friend, and he discovered a sense of peace and serenity as he had never known. 

It was then that Bill realized there were thousands of alcoholics who might be glad to have what was so freely given to him.  He decided to work with them, so that they could in turn work with others.  After all, faith without works was dead.  Bill and his wife abandoned themselves to the idea of helping other alcoholics to a solution of their problems. 

The first year and a half Bill's old business associates remained skeptical and he found little work.  Occasionally the despair would nearly drive him back to drink, but he would go instead to work with other alcoholics.  On talking to men at the hospital he would be lifted up and set on his feet.  A fellowship developed and he was able to watching the fledgling Alcoholics Anonymous grow. 

"Most of us feel we need look no further for Utopia.  We have it with us right here and now.  Each day my friend's simple talk in our kitchen multiplies itself in a widening circle of peace on earth and good will to men." - p. 16