Alcoholic's Anonymous began in 1930's, as an organization for alcoholics to help one another through experience, strength and hope stay sober one day at a time. In 1939 the first edition of the The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous was published. In story after story various authors made reference to their "long suffering" families. This was the first real acknowledgement that alcoholism affected more than the alcoholic but also those who loved and cared about the alcoholic. Like a pebble tossed in a placid lake, the ripples from that pebble are far reaching. It became apparent that not just those working to stay sober needed a program of recovery but also those touched by the ripples of alcoholism. From this need came the program of Al-Anon.