The AA Grapevine: The Meeting in Print

The Meeting in Print

The AA Grapevine — officially the "international journal of Alcoholics Anonymous" — has been described as "the meeting in print." Since its founding in 1944, it has served as a vital connection for AA members who are isolated from meetings, a forum for the sharing of experience and wisdom, and a record of the fellowship's evolving understanding of recovery. For more than eighty years, it has been one of the most important vehicles through which the AA fellowship has communicated with itself and with the world.

The Grapevine occupies a unique place in the AA literature. Unlike the Big Book, which is a foundational text that articulates the principles of the program, the Grapevine is a living document — a monthly publication that reflects the current experience and thinking of the fellowship. It is not authoritative in the way that the Big Book is authoritative; it is conversational, exploratory, and sometimes controversial. It is the place where the fellowship thinks out loud.

Founding

The Grapevine was founded in June 1944 by a small group of AA members in New York City who wanted to create a newsletter that would connect the rapidly growing fellowship. By 1944, AA had grown from a handful of members in Akron and New York to thousands of members across the United States and Canada, and the informal networks that had connected the early fellowship were no longer sufficient to maintain communication across such a large and geographically dispersed organization.

The first issue of the Grapevine was a four-page mimeographed sheet, produced by volunteers and distributed to a small number of AA groups. It contained personal stories, news from the fellowship, and reflections on the program. The response was enthusiastic — within a year, the Grapevine had grown to a full magazine format, with a circulation of several thousand copies.

Bill Wilson became an enthusiastic contributor to the Grapevine almost immediately. He used it as a forum for developing and sharing his thinking about AA's principles and traditions — many of the ideas that would eventually be codified in the Twelve Traditions were first articulated in Grapevine articles. The Grapevine gave Wilson a way to communicate with the fellowship that was more immediate and less formal than the Big Book, and he took full advantage of it.

Content and Character

The Grapevine's content has always been primarily personal stories — accounts by AA members of their drinking, their recovery, and their experience of working the Steps. This emphasis on personal narrative reflects the program's fundamental insight that one alcoholic's story can reach another alcoholic in a way that no amount of clinical or theoretical writing can. The Grapevine is, in this sense, an extension of the AA meeting — a place where members share their experience, strength, and hope with each other.

Over the decades, the Grapevine has also published essays on the Steps and Traditions, humor, poetry, and reflections on the spiritual dimensions of recovery. It has been a forum for the fellowship's ongoing conversation about its own principles and practices — a conversation that has been remarkably open and self-critical for an organization that might otherwise be expected to be defensive about its methods.

The Grapevine has also served as a record of the fellowship's evolution. Reading through the archives of the Grapevine is like reading the history of AA — the concerns, debates, and insights of each era are reflected in its pages. The early issues reflect the excitement and uncertainty of a young fellowship finding its way. The issues from the 1950s and 1960s reflect the growing confidence of a fellowship that had proven its effectiveness. The more recent issues reflect the diversity and complexity of a global fellowship that encompasses people of every background, culture, and circumstance.

The Grapevine and Bill Wilson

Bill Wilson's relationship with the Grapevine was one of the most important of his later life. After the publication of the Big Book in 1939 and the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions in 1952, Wilson continued to write prolifically for the Grapevine. His Grapevine articles addressed a wide range of topics — the spiritual dimensions of recovery, the challenges of long-term sobriety, the relationship between AA and the broader recovery movement, and his own personal struggles and insights.

Some of Wilson's most important and personal writing appeared in the Grapevine. His articles on depression — in which he wrote openly about his own struggles with what he called "a dark night of the soul" — were particularly significant. At a time when mental health problems were deeply stigmatized, Wilson's willingness to write honestly about his depression helped reduce the shame that many AA members felt about their own mental health struggles.

Wilson also used the Grapevine to explore controversial ideas — including his interest in LSD as a potential treatment for alcoholism and his advocacy for the use of niacin (vitamin B3) for depression. These explorations were controversial within the fellowship, and they illustrate both Wilson's intellectual curiosity and the Grapevine's role as a forum for the fellowship's ongoing conversation about its own principles and practices.

The Grapevine as a Lifeline

For many AA members, the Grapevine has been a lifeline — a connection to the fellowship when in-person meetings were not available. For members in remote areas, in institutions, or in countries where AA was not yet established, the Grapevine provided a way to stay connected to the fellowship and to the program. For members who were too ill or too isolated to attend meetings, it provided a way to continue their recovery work.

The importance of the Grapevine as a lifeline has been particularly evident in times of crisis. During World War II, the Grapevine was sent to AA members serving in the military, providing a connection to the fellowship for people who were far from home and far from meetings. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when in-person meetings were suspended, the Grapevine's digital edition provided a way for members to stay connected to the fellowship.

The Grapevine Today

Today, the AA Grapevine is published monthly and is available in print and digital formats. It has published more than 50,000 stories since its founding and has been translated into multiple languages. Its digital edition includes audio recordings of stories, making it accessible to members with visual impairments or reading difficulties.

The Grapevine also publishes a Spanish-language edition, La Viña, which serves the growing Spanish-speaking AA community. La Viña was founded in 1996 and has grown to become an important resource for Spanish-speaking AA members in the United States and Latin America.

For AA members who are isolated — in remote areas, in institutions, or simply unable to attend meetings regularly — the Grapevine provides a connection to the fellowship that is genuinely valuable. It remains, as it has always been, the meeting in print — a place where the fellowship shares its experience, strength, and hope, and where the ongoing conversation about recovery continues, month after month, year after year.