I was reading “A Feminine Victory” and saw
where she said that she was reading the Bible
and “Victorious Living.” Was this one of the
books that were suggested reading in early AA?
____________________________
Glenn C. (South Bend, Indiana)
“A Feminine Victory” in the 1st edition
(page 217) was written by Florence Rankin.
She first started in AA in March 1937. The
passage you are talking about reads:
“Things went very well for quite a while,
then came a dull rainy day. I was alone.
The weather and my self-pity began to cook
up a nice dish of the blues for me. There
was liquor in the house and I found myself
suggesting to myself ‘Just one drink will
make me feel so much more cheerful.’ Well,
I got the Bible and ‘Victorious Living’
and sitting down in full view of the bottle
of whiskey, I commenced to read. I also
prayed …. and in half an hour I got up
and was absolutely free of the urge for a
drink.”
This was probably the well known book
by E. Stanley Jones, “Victorious Living”
(1936).
E. Stanley Jones (1884-1973) was a
Methodist missionary and author, who
was very close with Mahatma Gandhi.
He also wrote “The Christ of the Indian
Road” (1925) and “Abundant Living” (1942).
<http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/4319?var=1>
Jones writes in the into, God heals the body 1. by medicine, 2. by surgery 3. nutrition 4. by climate 5. by mental suggestion 6. by deliverance from underlying fears, resentments, self-centeredness and guilt. …His little book includes steps very close to the 12 steps. He also refers to the steps as “the steps down”. Lovely.!
