Rare Alcoholics Anonymous Original Recordings Go Up for Sale

This rare set includes all of the vinyl Golden Records, recordings of the famous “Golden Books.” This set is available for purchase now at ReXark’s online store, ReXark AA Gifts and Collectibles. Click Here to visit the store The set of 30 records (12 inch vinyl LP recordings) in five boxes is in very good condition. The records appear to have been handled very little. This is the only complete set of these collectible records available anywhere for sale to the general public that we know of. Father Ralph S. Pfau, also known as Father John Doe (10 November 1904 – 19 February 1967) was the author of Sobriety Without End, Sobriety and Beyond and the Golden Book series. He is believed to have been the first Roman Catholic priest to enter Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). With the approval of his Archbishop, he devoted himself to helping other alcoholics, particularly alcoholic priests. He traveled more than 50,000 miles a year to address meetings, conduct retreats and help individuals. His retreats were attended by thousands of Catholics and by many more thousands who were not Catholics. His retreat talks were eventually published in a series of 14 Golden Books. They were so named because when he held the second annual retreat in June of 1947, at the request of some of the people who had attended the first retreat his talks were printed in a fifty-six page booklet with a gold cover, and distributed as a souvenir, through the generosity of the owner of the archdiocesan newspaper in Indianapolis. People began requesting copies of “the golden book of your retreat.” In 1948 he founded the National Clergy Conference on Alcoholism, an organization devoted to the problems of priests, and directed it for many years. Its publications, especially “Alcoholism Source Book for Priests,” and the annual “Blue Book,” made a deep impact on the American Catholic Hierarchy. Father Pfau is remembered as one of the most popular and influential characters in the history of Alcoholics Anonymous. The records contain actual recordings of the material he conveyed during his popular AA talks in the 1940’s and 50’s. For more information, please visit www.rexark.com online, where a “Contact Us” form is available. Some of the information above garnered from the websites hindsfoot.org and wikipedia.org The following is what is printed on the inside of each box cover: The Golden Recordings of Father John Doe All the talks on GOLDEN RECORDINGS were originally Retreat talks, the first of which was given in the fall of 1945. In 1947 responding to many requests for copies of these talks, the first ones were published in the GOLDEN BOOK OF THE SPIRITUAL SIDE . This little volume containing the talk “The Spiritual Side of Alcoholics Anonymous” has since sold over 50,000 copies, and the talk itself has been given by the author to over a thousand A. A. Groups throughout the United States and Canada. Also in 1947 at the Texas State A.A. Convention at Austin, Texas, the same talk given at the Convention, was acclaimed by Bill W. the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous as “a talk which should be heard by every member of A.A. throughout the world.” Subsequently all of the Retreat talks were published in THE GOLDEN BOOKS , SOBRIETY AND BEYOND and SOBRIETY WITHOUT END . These books have been highly recommended for alcoholics and non-alcoholics alike by such outstanding men in the psychiatric, religious and medical field as Doctor Karl Menninger, Chief of Staff at the Menninger Foundation, Topeka, Kansas; the Gregorian University of Rome, Italy; Father John C. Ford, S.J., A.M., LL.B., S.T.D., eminent Jesuit theologian of Weston College, Weston, Mass.; and J. Pennington Fuller, M.D., of England. To enable many more to hear Father John Doe, the author of these books, talks taken from THE GOLDEN BOOKS , SOBRIETY AND BEYOND , and SOBRIETY WITHOUT END now comprise the 30 GOLDEN RECORDINGS . They are: “The Spiritual Side of Alcoholics Anonymous”; “Resentments”; “Action”; “Excuses”; “Decisions”; “Serenity”; “Humility”; “The Lord’s Prayer”; “Honesty”; “Tolerance”; “Easy Does It”; “Attitudes”; “Father John Doe — Alcoholic”; “Anonymity”; “Weakness is Strength”; “The Will of God”; “The Myth of Perfection”; “Alcoholism — Sin or Disease”; “We’re Not Different”; “The Paradox of Giving”; “Life is a Selfish Program”; “The Principles of A.A.”; four recordings on The Twelve Steps as follows: “The 12 Steps-I” (1-2-3); “The 12 Steps-II (4-5-6); The 12 Steps III ” (7-8-9-10); “The 12 Steps-IV” (11-12); “A Sense of Humor”; “Live – And Let Live”; “Restore Us to Sanity”; and “Death — A Meditation”; and have been recorded “live” on 33 1/3 LP 12 inch records. All of these talks average 40 minutes, and are custom pressed by RCA Victor and are available from: THE SMT GUILD P.O BOX 313 Indianapolis, Indiana 46206 All rights reserved These are live recordings of retreat talks by Father John Doe, also known as Ralph Pfau. The recordings were made starting in 1945, and custom pressed by RCA Victor onto Long Play 33 1/3 12-inch vinyl records. The full set is presented here. There are a total of thirty records in five boxes. Article ©2010 ReXark

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