Dispute over AA ‘bible’ settled

LOS ANGELES — The founding document of Alcoholics Anonymous, known to adherents as the Big Book, is going back to auction after a lawsuit disputing its ownership was settled.

Auction house Profiles in History said on Wednesday the manuscript and manifesto will go up for sale in Los Angeles on May 5. It is expected to fetch between $2 million and $3 million US.

The 161-page typed document with yellowing pages, considered to be nearly scripture by some AA followers, give the first outline of the group’s 12-step recovery program. It is filled with handwritten notes and scribbles from the founding fathers of AA, including William Wilson, more commonly known as Bill W.

It had been slated to be auctioned last June, but Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. disputed that Alabama resident Ken Roberts had the rights to it. Roberts bought the manuscript at auction in 2007 for $850,000.

Details of the settlement were not released, but Profiles in History said Alcoholics Anonymous had waived its rights to the manuscript.

Wilson’s widow Lois owned the papers after his death in 1971, and passed them on to her friend Barry Leach. Alcoholics Anonymous said Leach signed and notarized a letter in 1979 saying the manuscript would belong to the organization after his death. He died in 1985, but the manuscript did not make its way to Alcoholics Anonymous, which did not know about the notarized letter at the time.

Its ownership history in the ensuing years is not entirely clear until 2004, when Sotheby’s auctioned it for $1.57 million. Then it sold to Roberts in 2007.