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Presented without comment. Published originally in the January 1963 issue of "Readers Digest". Out of Her Suffering Has Been Born a Network of Hope and Help for Thousands. by Floyd Miller In January 1963, Reader's Digest published a story by Floyd Miller titled "What the Alcoholic Owes to Marty Mann. Out of her suffering has been born a network of hope and help for thousands. The article is available at Silkwood.net, a website that provides historical writings, documents, letters, events, people, places and references through-out the history of Alcoholics Anonymous. An ashen-faced man in search of help made his way into a quiet office on New York's upper Fifth Avenue. He was an alcoholic, and he poured out his despairing story to a handsome woman in her 50's who sat behind a large desk. After a few moments he paused, spread his hands helplessly and said, "its difficult to make you understand how I feel." "Oh, but I know exactly how you feel, " she said. "I, too, am an alcoholic. I wouldn't be here if I hadn't gone through the valley of the shadow." The woman was Mrs. Marty Mann, executive director of the National Council on Alcoholism, a voluntary health organization she founded 18 years ago. A remorseless crusader against ignorance and prejudice concerning alcoholism, she has been largely responsible for the fact that the nation's attitude toward the "drunkard" is changing, that alcoholism is now recognized as a disease and that thousands of our five million alcoholics are today being successfully treated. (Only one drinker out of 15 or 16 develops alcoholism. Like an iceberg, the symptoms are below the surface at first; but the disease progresses relentlessly until the victim, once he takes a drink, stops only when he is too drunk to continue. It usually takes 10 to 15 years of drinking for a potential alcoholic to acquire the disease full-blown. If un-checked, it can end only in insanity or death.) On the lecture platform Marty Mann is electric. Her handsomeness is deepened by marks of suffering, and she summons up a power of purpose that transfixes her audience. Her husky voice speaks of reasoned facts, but with a spirituality that drives them hard into the hearts as well as the minds of those who hear. Once in Jacksonville a man awoke in a hotel room after a week of drinking, turned on the radio and heard Marty Mann speaking from New Orleans. "No alcoholic wants to be the way he is," she was saying. "Alcoholics are not bums. They are sick, and they can recover from this disease just as from others." The words penetrated the man's numbed brain, and for the first time he began to hope. He picked up the phone, called the radio station and asked to speak to the woman who had just broadcast. Marty not only talked with him; she put him in touch with someone in Jacksonville who could give him immediate help. Marty Mann can supply almost immediate help from coast to coast through NCA's network of affiliates operating Alcoholism Information Centers in 74 cities. Without charge and without humiliation, the alcoholic or his family can telephone or come to these centers for consultation and referral. Depending on the individual's condition and need, he is sent to a doctor, a hospital, a clinic or to Alcoholics Anonymous. Science now believes that two basic conditions must be present to make a person prey to alcoholism: an emotional vulnerability, and a body chemistry which makes him sensitive to the alcohol he consumes in an effort to ease his emotional stresses. Marty Mann's own case demonstrates these concepts with classic simplicity. Born to a wealthy Chicago family, she went to the best private schools. As a debutante she entered a world that was all champagne and caviar. In her set it was gay and smart to go to New Orleans for the Mardi Gras. On the spur of the moment she married a young man she met there; she was 22. A year later tuberculosis, with which she had had a bout as a child, flared up, and she went to a Western ranch for both recovery and divorce. Though she did not realize it until much later, her real descent

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: IT IS WITH GREAT SADNESS that I have been informed of the following: ...that our good friend and contributor to AAHISTORYLOVERS, Bob S., passed this morning. The obituary will be posted on both platforms within a few days. From the e-mail I received: "Bob Stonebraker passed at 6:16 am today. We now need to just carry a simple message of the program of action. RIP Bob." I thank Bruce C. for bringing this to my attention this morning. I cannot say any more of substance at the moment because I am in shock. But I will say that many of Bob's incredible contributions on AA history topics are in the files section here (I tried to collect them all but he is so prolific that I'm not sure if we ever did get them all!). R.I.P. Bob S. More information to follow soon. Thom R. AAHL Moderator END OF ANNOUNCEMENT # # # P.S. NORMAL AAHL COMMENTING GUIDELINES ARE SUSPENDED FOR THIS POST. Personal comments ARE ENCOURAGED.

Since The Upper Room was so widely read by program pioneers, have searched high and low for period issues without success. Anyone have a link or idea for how to access? #TheUpperRoom