Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous (1953) first edition book

Alcoholics Anonymous - Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions


Harper & Brothers, 1953. 8vo. Hardcover. 192 pp. First edition, first printing (code D-C). All first issue points present. Ex-library copy. And not the prettiest one, either. Stamps on endpapers, title page; card pocket on rear pastedown. Extensive smudging, pattern-toning to preliminary pages (up to but not past copyright page). Boards are tape-reinfoced along length of joints, backstrip and extending 2cm or so onto endpapers with attendant foxing marks present. Boards are well worn along edges. Underlining to three words in inkpen on pp 52-53. Dust jacket is not _horrible_ and has retained its bright green color, though rubbed along joints and edges and chipped in a few spots. Small closed tear near upper front fore-edge (1cm or so) and at head of spine (see photos). Binding is intact; no loose pages. Dust jacket flaps appear to be clipped vertically--or else folded back on to themselves--3cm from their respective edges. Jacket is encased in heavy-duty library mylar which is held to the boards with scotch tape attached to the corners of the flaps. The Harper trade edition was published simultaneously with the Alcoholics Anonymous in-house edition but in much smaller numbers and with a green-variant dust jacket. Very scarce! In purely material terms this is an unprepossessing copy indeed, but I think you'll agree this is one book where ragged forbearance counts as a greater virtue than prettiness.