Customer Reviews

Classics: An Investor's Anthology

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This book is currently out of print, so you will need to find it at a used book retailer or in your favorite library, perhaps. Regardless of how you get it, it is well worth the effort. It consists of 80 or so original short articles by the best investors and financial authors of all time--people like Paul Cabot, Benjamin Graham and David Dodd, Jesse Livermore, T. Rowe Price, John Burr Williams, David Babson, Peter Bernstein, Phil Fisher, G.M. Loeb, Harry Markowitz, Warren Buffett, Edward C. Johnson, William Sharpe, Arthur Zeikel, Barton Biggs, David Dreman, Charlie Ellis, Bennett Goodspeed, Roy Neuberger, John Train, Richard Brealey, John Templeton and Byron Wein. If there's a better collection of important investment writings, I don't know what it is. (There is a Classics II, however, which is a follow-on book to this one.) As they say on those television infomercials, it would take you forever and cost a small fortune to duplicate this collection of the most memorable writings of the finest minds in investing. In terms of what you'll get for what you pay, this book is simply a steal.

As the authors claim, this is a collection of the most enduring writings on investment theory and practice, and offers you invaluable insights from the industry's leading thinkers. I would have to agree that the 82 selected articles, chapters from books, and career observations by some of the best investors and financial authors, round out a mini-education in itself. Some of just a few of the authors selected are heavy weights like Benjamin Graham, Phil Fisher, Warren Buffett, Jesse Livermore, John Burr Williams, David Dreman, John Templeton and many many others. Topics as diverse from Buffett's 1965 letter to the partnership, to Jesse Livermore's "How to trade stocks" are spread throughout. The book is segregated into five (5) sections starting with the Pre-WW II section, then the 50's, 60's, 70's, and finishes with the 80's. (The book was originally published in 1989)

I am somewhat partial to Roy Neuberger's Almanac, Ben Graham's Chapter 20, and Phil Fisher's 15 Points, but there many others to comment on but let's just say this should be in everyone's collection that is a serious student of the market as the 700 plus pages are well worth the time invested. Of note: Since this is no longer published, one of the used book services will be needed.