Silkworth: The Little Doctor Who Loved Drunks the Biography of William Duncan Silkworth, M.D.

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Summary: AA's silent partner
Review: This book is a biography of a very interesting and persistent man, Dr. William Duncan Silkworth. Dr. Silkworth was a pioneer in the treatment of alcoholism in the early 1930's. The book's author Dale Mitchel does a fabulous job of researching Dr. Silkworth's background and detailing Dr. Silkworth's contribution to the treatment of alcoholism. It was one of Dr. Silkworth's patients who went on to form the basis of the most effective treatment of alcoholism today, Alcoholics Anonymous.
It was Dr. Silkworth who took the enormous gamble of allowing one of his recovered alcoholic patients, Bill Wilson, to act as a lay therapist on the alcoholism ward during the first few weeks of his sobriety. The gamble paid off and over time the concept led to the formation of AA.
Dale Mitchel felt that Dr. Silkworth did not get enough credit for his pioneering work, hence he set out to write the doctor's biography. But, how? Fortunately, Mitchel found all of Dr. Silkworth's personal papers in the possession of a niece of the doctor, Adelaide Silkworth. The result is not only a tribute to a great man, but also a very interesting story worth reading.