One Drunk to Another The Little Doctor
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Illustration · A doctor’s office in New York, 1930s

The Little Doctor

Meet Dr. Silkworth

The doctor who told Bill W. his drinking was an illness, then stood by AA for the rest of his life.

Portrait photograph of Dr. William Duncan Silkworth.
Dr. William Duncan Silkworth, 1873–1951.Wikimedia Commons

“He was very slight of figure and then pushing 60, I should say. His compassionate blue eyes took me in at a glance. A shock of pure white hair gave him a kind of otherworldly look.”

Bill W., remembering their first meeting · Pass It On, 1984

Over his career, William Duncan Silkworth treated an estimated 40,000 alcoholics or more, at a time when most doctors saw heavy drinking as a moral failing rather than a disease.

In 1934 one of those patients was Bill W. Silkworth gave him the words AA still uses to describe the illness, stood by him on the night his drinking ended, and five years later wrote the letter that opens the Big Book, “The Doctor’s Opinion.”

Bill called him “very much a founder of A.A.” What follows tells his story in seven parts, from the wards of Bellevue to the hospital unit he ran near the end of his life.

Start with 1 · Inebriate ward

His life at a glance

  1. 1873Born July 22 in Brooklyn, New York.
  2. 1896Graduates from Princeton.
  3. 1898Marries Marie Antoinette Bennett.
  4. 1899Earns his medical degree at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, finishing the four-year program in three.
  5. 1909Publishes a follow-up study on treating morphine addiction. That winter the couple’s only child, a son, dies at six days old.
  6. 1918Serves on the psychiatric staff of the Army hospital at Plattsburgh, New York, during World War I.
  7. 1929The stock market crash wipes out his savings.
  8. 1930sBecomes chief physician at Charles B. Towns Hospital on Central Park West.
  9. 1934Treats Bill W. through the last of four stays. Bill never drinks again.
  10. 1937Publishes his “allergy” theory of alcoholism in the Medical Record.
  11. 1939His letter, “The Doctor’s Opinion,” opens the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous.
  12. 1945Opens a ward for alcoholics at Knickerbocker Hospital, with help from AA members.
  13. 1951Dies of a heart attack on March 22, at 77, still working with alcoholics.

Seven parts and Legacy

Walk through his story

Each part has a short story, a one-minute audio stop, and a closer look for anyone who wants to go deeper. Read them in order, or start anywhere.

    An orientation film is on its way. Until then, The Kitchen Table tells the whole story of AA, from one drunk talking to another to millions around the world.

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