Framed Photo and Letter Written by Marty Mann

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This letter was written on June 16, 1939, by Marty Mann to Frank Amos. The letter reads: ?Dear Mr. Amos, I am enclosing my check for $5.00. This is my pledge toward Bill Wilson?s salary covering June 15th - July 15th. Yours sincerely, Marty Mann? Addressed at the top right corner: ?Blythewood Greenwich June 16-1939? This letter is the only document outside of AA GSO archives which indicates that Frank Amos had set up a special fund to help support Bill Wilson. This letter will go great with the recently purchased book signed by Frank Amos. Bill Wilson Fund: In late April 1939, Bill and Lois Wilson were evicted from their home at 182 Clinton St. in New York City. This was only two weeks after the first printing of the AA book was published. Bill and Lois Wilson ultimately ended up living in over 50 different locations over the next two years until finally moving into their home in Bedford Hills, NY (Stepping Stones). ?Bill?s Salary?, used in Marty?s note is peculiar but all monies that were sent in from contributions went to the Alcoholic Foundation pot that Frank Amos managed behind the scenes and not directly given to Bill Wilson. The document log is in the GSO archives stating the pledges of each individual. On May 15, 1939, Hank Parkhurst wrote a letter to Frank Amos informing him that it has been decided by some of the early AA members that they would make monthly donations to help Bill Wilson. Below is a portion of that letter: Dear Frank: At the Sunday afternoon meeting certain of us decided to make monthly donations to the Alcoholic Foundation, to be ear-marked for Bill Wilson. In some cases these payment will be made bi-monthly and in some cases monthly. I will attend to sending out the statements of these amounts for the next twelve month period of time, if you will keep us informed of the amounts sent to you, and the date you receive them. Several people have requested permission to make checks payable to you to be deposited in your personal account, you in turn issuing check to the Alcoholic Foundation. The reason for this is that these people do not want checks to The Alcoholic Foundation going through their banks. Following is a list of promised donations: Marty Mann - $5.00 per mo. Gren [sic?] Curtis - 15.00 R.F. Volentine - 30.00 L.C. Cox - 25.00 T.K. Birrell - 5.00 R.A. Furlong - 10.00 Henry Heller - 1.50 H.G. Parkhurst - 25.00 H. Taylor - 20.00 Marty Mann: Marty Mann was a patient in Blythewood Sanitarium in Greenwich, Connecticut at the time of writing this letter. Mann was admitted to Blythewood at the end of June in 1938 and discharged in September of 1939. It was at Blythewood that Mann, under the care of Dr. Harry Tiebout, was introduced, via a pre-publication multilith copy of ?The Big Book,? to Alcoholics Anonymous. On April 11, 1939(one day after the First Printing big book was published), Marty Mann attended her first ?AA Meeting? at the home of Bill Wilson at 182 Clinton St., New York City. Marty Mann became one of the first women to achieve sobriety in Alcoholics Anonymous and was sponsored by Bill Wilson. She is the author of the personal story titled ?Women Suffer Too?, that can be found in the Second Edition through the Fourth Edition Big Books. Her story was written in the early 1940?s and widely shared through the earliest pamphlets produced by AA. In 1945, Mann became inspired with the desire to eliminate the stigma and ignorance regarding alcoholism and to encourage the "disease model" which viewed it as a medical/psychological problem, not a moral failing. She helped start the ?Yale School of Alcohol Studies? (now at Rutgers) and organized the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism (NCEA), now the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence or NCADD. Frank Amos and The Alcoholic Foundation Excerpt from the book AA Comes of Age: ?In 1938 Frank went out to Akron to meet Dr. Bob and to make a careful survey of what had transpired there. It was his glowing report of Dr. Bob and Ak. Seller Inventory # 0462

Bibliographic Details

Title: Framed Photo and Letter Written by Marty Mann
Condition: Good
Signed: Signed by Author(s)
Edition: 1st Edition