Hi Ernie: Over the years, I have donated lots of material to Brown through my friend David Lewis. At one point, however, when he and I were working on having my entire 23,900 item historical collection funded and then donated to Brown, he pointed out that items which were copied or which didn't have "provenance" would not pass acceptance by the librarians. Also, he thought he had a number of the books through his $250,000 Charlie Bishop purchase. At the end of a couple of years, he indicated there was a priority for Mitch K.'s materials and yours and offered to negotiate around $35,000.00 - which my son and I had to turn down because the materials were appraised at $345,000. and the cost over 14 years of travel, purchases, office expense, etc. far far exceeded the $35,000. Then, piece by piece, almost the entire collection was funded and donated to the Griffith House Library at The Wilson House. As to the Shoemaker materials, I will make them available for donation to anyone who will pay $15,000.00 plus modest shipping and handling and will see that they are safe, stewarded, and accessible. But I don't have the heart or the health to quibble or negotiate over what are or are not copies, what are or are not duplicates, etc. And I know of several great potential locations - three in Akron, one in Texas, one in Kentucky, and one in Pittsburgh. I have held back this Shoemaker collection after funding and donating almost my entire 23,900 items to The Wilson House. Similarly, as you probably know, I have the entire Dr. Bob Library collection - not just scraps or coffee pots, but containing a volume of every book in his library and mentioned in my three bibliographies - Dr. Bob and His Library, The Books Early AAs Read for Spiritual Growth, and Making Known the Biblical History and Roots of A.A. The Dr. Bob collection, like the Shoemaker collection, has many other items including a copy of the real Anne Smith’s Journal which I obtained through Sue, Nell, and Frank Mauser.

To sum up, I’ve had the privilege of seeing the excellent materials of people like Jim Newton, Earl Husband, and yourself made available to good repositories, and I was and am determined to see all of mine similarly situated before they float my body out to sea in an outrigger canoe with lei’s on all sides.

A few of us have spent the better part of two or more decades assembling, analyzing, and publicizing the history and historical materials that A.A. itself has never made accessible or available. First came the search. Then came the acquisitions. Then came the analysis and publication. And now there is more for the future: (1) Seeing the material in good stewardship. (2) Making photo and film and audio talks about them. (3) Posting as much as possible on the internet for all to see free of charge. And already, people like aabiliography have begun the costly, time-consuming, task.

Thank you for writing and for the kind words. I took the time to elaborate because there has often been misunderstanding among the historians as to who has done what and who wants what. If these things all hang out, some of these days there will a basis for a composite, accurate, complete history, albeit always growing.

God Bless, Dick B.

-----Original Message-----
From: Alcohol and Drugs History Society [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Ernest Kurtz
Sent: Sunday, October 24, 2004 3:45 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The Reverend Samuel Moor Shoemaker Nov 2004

Hi Dick,

Have you given any thought to donating these to the Brown University

Collection? They are now concentrating on biographical collections,

including Sue Smith Windows's as well as Clarence Snyder's. I find them

a worthy repository and am in the process of arranging that Dan

Anderson's papers go there.

Hope you are well and that your mentoring of Roch Kolenda keeps holding

promise for all of us. Rich is a fine young man, and seems ready to

learn much from you.

ernie kurtz

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