Colts owner Jim Irsay has purchased the original founding document of Alcoholics Anonymous, spending $2.4 million at an auction.
Irsay told the Associated Press that he attended his first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting 25 years ago and believes the group can save lives, and he hopes to inspire others by publicly displaying the document.
“The only way we stay sober is to give it away,” Irsay said. “I think it’ll help a lot of people. That’s the reason I’m doing it.”
The 161-page document, written in the 1930s by AA founder William Wilson, is typewritten but also includes his handwritten notes. Wilson’s book became known as “The Big Book” and was eventually translated into dozens of languages, with tens of millions of copies in print.
Irsay said he plans to display the document for part of the year at AA’s headquarters, and also hopes to put it on tour. Irsay also owns the original manuscript of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, which he has allowed to be displayed at museums around the world.