A readable, informative, succinct, respectful, but nonreverential biography of Bill Wilson (1895–1971), the guiding spirit
and organizer of Alcoholics Anonymous, the hugely successful (millions of members in 140 countries) "mother" of all self-help
movements.
Formerly both a director of the AA-related Stepping Stone Foundation and the longtime secretary and confidant to Bill
Wilson's wife, Lois, Hartigan is very much an AA insider. Yet he clearly has done a great deal of research, and is usually able
to write with a certain critical distance. Thus, he captures vividly the near-mystical November 1934 experience that impelled the
ruinously alcoholic Wilson—at the time, he "lived to drink," had lost countless jobs, and was more than $500,000 (in today's
dollars) in debt—to go cold turkey and remain sober the rest of his life. Hartigan also captures Wilson's psychological
weaknesses, including his depression (sometimes, as during the long period 1944–53, cripplingly severe), his womanizing, and
his smoking, which ultimately killed him. These addictions are far outweighed, however, by Wilson’s range of strengths, including
boundless commitment toward the movement he cofounded with Dr. Bob Smith of Akron, Ohio; great personal charm; tremendous
organizational entrepreneurship; excellent media relations; and openness toward divergent viewpoints. Wilson made AA into a
progressive organization by successfully pushing to allow African-Americans, gays, and lesbians to participate as early as the
1930s and '40s, when such a stance was unpopular, even shocking, to many members. As he demonstrated in experimenting in
the late 1950s with LSD, which he hoped would help cure alcoholics, he never outgrew his penchant for risk taking. The author
absorbingly presents his hero warts and all, though often assuming readers have too great a familiarity with AA (for example,
he frequently alludes to, yet never enumerates, its famous Twelve Steps).
Hartigan depicts Wilson as not only an organizational genius, but also as an amazingly resilient, largely appealing, and
otherwise immensely interesting human being.
