About The Author
Dick B. is an active, recovered member of Alcoholics Anonymous; a retired attorney; and a Bible student. He has sponsored more than one hundred men in their recovery from alcoholism. Consistent with A.A.’s traditions of anonymity, he uses the pseudonym “Dick B.”
Dick is the father of two married sons (Ken and Don) and a grandfather. As a young man, he did a stint as a newspaper reporter. He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he received his A.A. degree in economics with honors, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in his Junior year. In the United States Army, he was an Information Education Specialist. He received his A.B. and J.D. degrees from Stanford University, and was Case Editor of the Stanford Law Review.
The author became interested in Bible study in his childhood Sunday School and was much inspired by his mother’s almost daily study of Scripture. He joined, and later became president of, a Community Church affiliated with the United Church of Christ. By 1972, he was studying the origins of the Bible and began traveling abroad in pursuit of that subject. In 1979, he became much involved in a Biblical research, teaching, and fellowship ministry. In his community life, he was president of a merchants’ council, Chamber of Commerce, church retirement center, and homeowners’ association. He served on a public district board and was active in a service club.
In 1986, he was felled by alcoholism, gave up his law practice, and began recovery as a member of the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous. In 1990, his interest in A.A.’s Biblical/Christian roots was sparked by his attendance at A.A.’s International Convention in Seattle. Since then, he has traveled widely; researched at archives, and at public and seminary libraries; interviewed scholars, historians, clergy, A.A. “old_timers” and survivors; and participated in conferences, programs, panels, and seminars on early A.A.’s spiritual history.
He is regarded as one of the top historians writing about Alcoholics Anonymous and it’s Biblical roots; in addition to this present volume, Dr. Bob and His Library: A Major A.A. Spiritual Source (Third Edition), he has published many other widely read books on the Alcoholics Anonymous program and it’s Biblical roots. The following are all of Dick’s books for viewing, after which I encourage you to read all of Dick’s many articles that he has written.
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ISBN
1-885803-  |
Dr. Bob and His Library This is the third edition of an important book about one of early A.A.’s pioneers who played a crucial role in its spiritual history and unique successes. Over the past eleven years, the author has put together seventeen titles which tell the story of where A.A. came from and why it worked so well in the pioneer days. A.A. spiritual ideas came from the Bible, both directly and indirectly. The new perspective in this revised edition is how its spiritual ideas really began in the youth of its co-founder, Dr. Robert H. Smith. Here, the author explores Christian Endeavor, a world-wide Christian movement which was embraced by Dr. Bob in his youth. There is a study of the Congregational, Episcopal, and Presbyterian Churches to which he belonged. In the backdrop, of course, are the Christian and other religious books he studied so assiduously. Dr. Bob, as AAs call him, read a wide variety of spiritual books throughout his life. They certainly included the Bible as the main focus. They included Bible devotionals, books by the Rev. Sam Shoemaker of New York, books by Oxford Group writers, and many other books by Christian writers of the 1920’s and 1930’s. The literature, recommended and circulated by Dr. Bob among early AAs and their families, represents a major A.A. spiritual source. This title tells the reader what those books were and, in many cases, adds a brief description of their content. If you are looking for a reliable guide for recovery from alcoholism and addictions, and particularly if you belong to a Twelve Step program, this book will tell you the literature that A.A.’s most successful sponsor (who personally helped more than 5,000 people recover) used to learn about, and grow in, the one real “spirituality”–reliance upon God Almighty, the Creator.
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