Customer Reviews

The Book of Daniel Drew

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"The Book of Daniel Drew" is an amusing portrait of "Uncle Dan" Drew, founder of Drew University and well-known nineteenth-century Wall Street schemer.Written from Drew's point of view, the book describes his progress from a circus hand and cattle drover to his rivalry with Commodore Cornelieus Vanderbilt and alliance with Jim Fiskand Jay Gould - a partership made infamous by the attempt to corner the gold market in the mid-1800s.

The book contains interesting tidbits of life in New York City when people still celebrated Evacuation Day, John Jacob Astor's brother worked as a butcher and Madison Square was covered by a pond! The book also explains the bovine origin of "watered stock."

Drew's various schemes, plots and religious inclinations are treated with an ironic humor that quickly reveals him as a sly hypocrite.

Bouck White claimed his book was based on a secret diary discovered after Drew's death. This claim has nver been verified and Drew's family threatened to sue for libel!

Bouck White was a character in his own right. He was a Harvard-educated minster turned political agitator in pre-WWI New York. In later life, he built a "home-made" castle near Albany, New York. He made pottery and talked philosophy with curious vistors. He died in 1951.

So you thought you knew everything about Wall Street. Think again! Here's one you can relax and really enjoy. Extremely entertaining history! An unusual book.

"He Who Sells What Isn't His'n
Must Buy it Back or Go to Pris'n."
--"Uncle Dan'l" Drew

For decades, the "sanctimonious and treacherous" Uncle Dan'l was the scourge of Wall Street.

Here is the colorful story, told largely in his own salty language, of his early life as a cattle drover - his discovery of the profit to be gained from "watered" cattle which he later used in watering the stock in the famed Erie Railroad operation - his building of a fortune in Wall Street - his epic struggles with Commodore Vanderbilt and his unholy alliances with Gould, Fisk and Tweed.

The BOOK OF DANIEL DREW has been out of print and virtually unobtainable for many years. It is a real classic of the stock market - a fascinating view of an era in American history and a period when anything went in the stock market - and, above all, an irresistible story of a country boy who grew up with this country and became one of its legendary figures.

This was a very interesting book right from the begining. Going through the life of Daniel Drew from a youth all the way to his 82nd year. He was an uneducated man who made it big. His life as a cattle drover and how he "watered the stock" are all in here. Numerous funny stories that will have the reader laughing out loud. From cattle to steamships to railroads his life was very diverse. It includes some details of his religous life which I would call his views questionable considering all the stories of how he lied to everyone about his business transactions even fellow church members. But it was not surprising considering he told how he had made a promise to donate $250,000 to start Drew Theological Seminary and then never could part with all of the money. Interesting enough is that the seminary is still around and very active.

He did business with some of the biggest names of the time, Astor, Gould, Fisk, Vanderbilt. He details how Gould and Fisk became his partners as stock traders. There are stories of revenge and the ups and downs of his wall street career. Also some insightful wisdom of how the market works from an insiders perspective. It was a funny story and sad at the same time but one that I believe most will enjoy.

This is where the expression "watered stock" comes from. The book is written from Drew's point of view - looking back over his life from age 80. Unlike Edwin Lefevre's characters, this guy is an unscrupulous arrogant !@#$%&. However, he is a !@#$%& with religion! A couple of annoying things: he writes the way uneducated people talk, rather than in correct English (eg "speckilation"); he uses quite objectional words to refer to dark skinned people (as was perhaps the custom in the 1850's or 1860's). Goes hand-in-hand with the work of Edwin Lefevre (Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, Wall Street Stories, The Golden Flood, The Plunderers, Sampson Rock of Wall Street) if you want a picture of the of the financial world of 100 years ago.