The Little Red Book
The Little Red Book (originally titled An Interpretation of the
Twelve Steps of the Alcoholics Anonymous Program, first published in
1946) was also read from and used for topics in A.A. meetings in
parts of the United States and Canada. It was written by A.A. member
Ed Webster in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and sponsored by the Nicollet
Group there. Dr. Bob helped Ed Webster write it and strongly
supported it: we can learn a lot about Dr. Bob's strategies for
working with beginners by studying this book. It was one of the four
most read books in early A.A. It was not used for A.A. meetings in
the St. Joseph river valley, but one old timer told me that there
were strong supporters of this book in other parts of Indiana, such
as in some of the A.A. groups in Fort Wayne, for example, and in
Indianapolis.
Like the Twenty-Four Hour book, it does not talk of prayer to Christ
or obtaining salvation through Christ, but speaks always of praying
directly to God or "the Power Greater than Ourselves." The A.A.
program was never in any way hostile to Christianity (or to any other
of the great religions of the world), but it was nevertheless a
firmly held belief that A.A. books and A.A. meetings had always to
use language which everyone could use, not just devoted Christians.