In Lois's writing, she states that SHE felt she should write the chapter, "To Wives," but Bill was convinced the whole book had to be written in the same "tone". That was a lot of baloney, of course, and Lois never QUITE forgave him for it, I don't think.
I don't know that Lois would have stayed with him today, either, but she might have. Many strong women have stood by great, yet deeply flawed, men throughout history (men seem to have less patience).
There is VERY strong sentiment against changing a word of the first 164 pages. I used to think the BB should be "updated," too, but I now think it should stay as is, and the historical context be taken into account. It would sort of be like changing the Bible, which is HORRIBLY misogynistic in places, but still contains a lot of truth and historical detail.
Incidentally, it IS true that Bill experimented with LSD. It wasn't for the purpose of getting "high" in the "let's get wasted" sense; rather, it was in the context of exploration of the consciousness in the Timothy Leary days. It was at one time believed to have medical value, as well.
Context, context.
Bill was no saint, but he had a wonderful revelation that he had the energy to spread to millions of suffering alcoholics.
Besides, the BB was a group effort, heavily edited and commented upon by the first 100 members. I recently got "The Book That Started It All," which is a reproduction of the working manuscript for the BB, complete with edits and scribbled comments in the margin. My personal favorite margin note was one that indicated a particular passage was "Dangerous for the NUTS!"
