
Alcoholics Anonymous First Edition First Printing from 1939
Alcoholics Anonymous First Edition First Printing This is the First Printing of the First Edition Big Book from 1939! This book has a reproduction dust jacket that looks great! — Learn more about the First Printing: Bill Wilson and Hank Parkhurst, the two men that spearheaded the book project, wanted to sell the book for $3.50 per copy. That was a very large sum in those days, the equivalent of around $50 today, and people might not think they were getting their money’s worth. They picked the cheapest, thickest paper the printer had, and requested that each page be printed with large margins surrounding the text. This made for an unusually large book. Thus, the book came to be nicknamed the “Big Book.” The First Printing is bigger and thicker than the current Fourth Editions. With AA having very little money in 1939 and the early 1940's, they picked the cheapest materials they could use for printing the book which contributed to the various colors of first editions. A New York AA membe