FIRST EDITION OF SUSAN CHEEVER’S BIOGRAPHY OF THE FOUNDER OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, MY NAME IS BILL, INSCRIBED BY HER WITHIN WEEKS OF PUBLICATION

CHEEVER, Susan. My Name is Bill. Bill Wilson: His Life and the Creation of Alcoholic Anonymous. New York: Simon & Schuster, (2004). Octavo, original half brown paper boards, original dust jacket. $400.

First edition of Cheever’s critically praised biography Bill Wilson, founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, inscribed and dated by her, “Keene, N.H. Feb. 2004. For Michael with love, S C,” with 16 pages of illustrations.

Susan Cheever inscribed this first edition of her biography of Bill Wilson the same month reviews appeared in the Washington Post and one month prior to its March 21, 2004 review by Michael Kammen in The New York Times, which praised Cheever’s even-handed portrayal of “the ups and downs of a remarkable man who recovered from 15 years of addiction to be a founder of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935 and then to travel tirelessly to sustain its growth. Cheever does so in her distinctive style: succinct chapters, pithy profiles and telling detail…Aldous Huxley, who met Wilson on his travels to California, called him ‘the greatest social architect of the 20th century.” To Kurt Vonnegut, Cheever’s biography of “one of the most humane and beneficial Americans who ever lived… is a national treasure.” With 16 pages of illustrations.

A fine inscribed copy.