Benjamin Graham on Value Investing: Lessons from the Dean of Wall Street [Paperback]

Janet Lowe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1996

For the first time, business journalist Janet Lowe provides a lively and lucid introduction to financial genius Benjamin Graham's investment theories, presented in terms of both his life and his work.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

When he died in 1976 at the age of 82, Benjamin Graham was highly respected in the investment community for his groundbreaking contribution to security analysis. During his faculty years at Columbia University, he professed an analytic approach to identifying undervalued securities that proved successful. This approach was later codified with the help of David Dodd in the landmark book Security Analysis (McGraw Hill, 1962. 4th ed.). Lowe (Keys to Investing in International Stocks, Barron, 1992) provides here a superficial biography of Graham, a summary of his investment principals, and a brief survey of opinion on the value of Graham's investment theory in the contemporary stock market. Glimpses into Graham's interaction with the pre-Depression stock market lend some color to this book. While experienced investors will find nothing new here, beginners may find this a worthwhile primer to value investing.
Joseph Barth, U.S. Military Acad. Lib., West Point, N.Y.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Scientific American

Near the bottom of the 1973-74 bear market, legendary investor Ben Graham was asked: 'Are you amused or disappointed that it takes real bear market to get analysts interested in your value approach?' Graham's response is recorded in a wonderful biography by Janet Lowe that celebrates his 100th birthday. The old master noted: 'The thinking man looks at the world and sees a comedy. The feeling man looks at the world and sees a tragedy.' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (March 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140255346
• ISBN-13: 978-0140255348
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #627,288 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Janet Lowe on Benjamin Graham's extra-marital affairs, January 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Benjamin Graham on Value Investing: Lessons from the Dean of Wall Street (Paperback)

This is basically Graham's life story, with a curious emphasis on his alleged "womanizing" and macho attitude -- that were quite typical of the era yet seem to fascinate and repel the author no end (whereas I, for one, am totally disinterested).

Still, the book would be OK if it was entitled something like "The Life and Times of Benjamin Graham".

But calling it "Benjamin Graham on Value Investing" is in my opinion a misrepresentation.

I would say there are less than 10 pages' worth of "lessons from the dean of Wall Street", barely skimmed, and scattered all over the book.

For readers who are not yet too serious about their investments, this may be a brief and painless introduction to the concept of value investing; but for my money, what little appears here of Graham's thinking was better explained and better organized in every other book by or about Graham that I've read, as well as most general textbooks on personal investment.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Stream of Consciousness Biography of Value Investor Graham, July 14, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Benjamin Graham on Value Investing: Lessons from the Dean of Wall Street (Hardcover)

The adage "Don't judge a book by its cover" proves to be true for Janet Lowe's book about Ben Graham. In fact, after reading this book, the adage can be updated to "Don't judge a book by its cover, its subtitle, or its endorsements."

Let's start with the book's subtitle, "Lessons from the Dean of Wall Street." The subtitle makes it sound as if Ms. Lowe's book explains Mr. Graham's investment ideas. This impression is reinforced when you read the endorsements on the book's dust cover. There you'll find quotes from a handful of investment managers (including Warren Buffet of Berkshire Hathaway and John Bogle of the Vanguard Group) that extol the virture of Mr. Graham's ideas and the importance of Ms. Lowe's book.

Ms. Lowe's book turns out to be biography that intersperses some of Mr. Graham's ideas throughout its 230 pages. More pages are devoted to information about Mr. Graham's mistresses than to details about his investment ideas. Thankfully, the book is a quick read.

From the extensive endnotes that appear at the end of the book, it's evident that Ms. Lowe spent a great deal of time researching her subject. Unfortunately, her presentation of this information needs a better structure and more focus.

The book jumps back and forth through time, often repeating information that had been discussed earlier. This happened so frequently that I had to pause several times to figure out if I was re-reading a section.

Worse yet, Ms. Lowe seems to get lost in this time warp herself. At one point, she tells us that Mr. Graham's son was in his early teens in the mid-1960's and then, two pages later, tells us that the same son enrolled at Berkeley in 1963. Unless the son was a child prodigy (and we're not told that he was), both pieces of information can't possibly be correct.

A biography should concentrate on its subject matter. In this case, that would be Benjamin Graham. However, Ms. Lowe loses this focus. Do I need to know that Mr. Buffet read Mr. Graham's The Intelligent Investor when Mr. Buffet was 19? Maybe. Do I have to be told this two more times? I don't think so. And in the second half of the book, she talks so much about Mr. Buffet that I almost forgot who the book was about.

Then there's the inconsequential information that she includes. While investigating a subject, the researcher is always going to uncover interesting facts. The writer's task is to determine which ones are essential for the story and which ones to reserve for cocktail conversation. Ms. Lowe doesn't make this distinction. While I was happy to read that one of Mr.Graham's distant relatives made so much money by investing with him that she was able to buy her condo for cash, this anecdote doesn't further our understanding of the man or his ideas. We already know that he was successful investor.

Another distraction is her use of subchapter headings. When they're used properly, they help organize the information that you're reading. In Ms. Lowe's book, they're used so haphazardly and some times so frequently (in some chapters, they're used after every third paragraph) that they lose any signficance that they might have had.

If you're an investor looking for detailed information about Mr. Graham's theories, Ms. Lowe's book isn't the one to read. Better choices would be either Mr. Graham's The Intelligent Investor or his Security Analysis written with David Dodd. If you're an investor looking for information about Graham's life outside of investing, you might find something in Ms. Lowe's book.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars AVOID!!!, September 3, 2002

By 

Michael Elliott "mikesmonopoly" (Maplewood, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Benjamin Graham on Value Investing: Lessons from the Dean of Wall Street (Paperback)

This book is near useless! Don't let the title fool you this book has near nothing to do with Graham's views on value investing. It is an extremly boring book on Ben's life, one which makes me have little or no respect for Ben as a person. I made the mistake of choosing this book hoping to pick up some tips and save a few bucks on the cover price, instead of buying the sure things (Intelligent Investor or Security Anaylsis). Those looking to be a value investor, this is one where there is little "value" in my opinion, and money would better be served somewhere else.