X-Nico

7 unusual facts about Bill W.


Bill W. and Dr. Bob

"In 1929, the famous New York stockbroker William G. Wilson crashed with the stock market and became a hopeless drunk. Dr. Bob Smith was a surgeon from Ohio, who had also been an alcoholic for thirty years. In fact, he often went into the operating room with a hangover. Through an astonishing series of events, Bill W. and Dr. Bob Smith met and formed a relationship, each helping to keep the other sober. The two went on to form AA together."

A video was produced of the 2007 Off-Broadway production by The Hazelden Foundation.

Bill W. and Dr. Bob is written by Stephen Bergman and Janet Surrey, produced by Bradford S. Lovette, Dr. Michael and Judith Weinberg, and The New Repertory Theatre and stars Marc Carver as Man, Kathleen Doyle as Anne Smith, Deanna Dunmyer as Woman, Rachel Harker as Lois Wilson, Patrick Husted as Dr. Bob Smith and Robert Krakovski as Bill Wilson.

Bill W. Clayton

State Representative Delwin Jones, a longtime friend, called Clayton a "tremendous guy."

He was considered one of the most influential legislators - and, after he left the chamber, lobbyists - in modern Texas history.

Melody Beattie

Similar to the work of Bill W. and Alcoholics Anonymous five decades earlier, Beattie's early work synthesizes psychoanalytic theory (especially object relations and the work of Heinz Kohut, Wilfrid Bion, and Otto Kernberg) into language people can easily grasp and use.

Susan Cheever

Cheever's books include My Name is Bill - Bill Wilson: His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous, a biography of Alcoholics Anonymous cofounder Bill Wilson; Home Before Dark, a memoir about her father, John Cheever; Note Found in a Bottle (a memoir of her own alcoholism and recovery); Treetops: A Memoir; and five novels: Looking for Work, A Handsome Man, The Cage, Doctors and Women, and Elizabaeth Cole.


Harold Hughes

A number of people in recovery testified, including Academy Award-winning actress Mercedes McCambridge, National Council on Alcoholism founder Marty Mann, and AA co-founder Bill W. In his autobiography, The Man from Ida Grove: A Senator's Personal Story, Hughes writes that he asked a dozen other well-known people in recovery to present public testimony, but all declined.

John J. Considine

Influences on his life and teaching include Unity Church, est, the Landmark Forum, yoga and meditation; as well as the Anonymous fellowships and the work of Bill W.


see also

Lois Wilson

Lois W. also known as Lois Wilson (née Burnham) (1891–1988), co-founder of Al-Anon and wife of Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill W.