09/16/96 MASTER INVESTOR

MASTER INVESTOR

BENJAMIN GRAHAM
The Memoirs of the Dean of Wall Street
Edited by Seymour Chatman
McGraw-Hill -- 351pp -- $27.95

With the success in recent years of a couple of books about billionaire superinvestor Warren E. Buffett, it's easy to see why a publisher might expect significant interest in the previously unpublished memoirs of Buffett's mentor, Benjamin Graham, a superinvestor in his own right in his own day.
But if you're looking for the formula for investment riches, it's not here. For that, you'll need to get a copy of Security Analysis, Graham's 1934 investment classic, or The Intelligent Investor, his 1949 work.
The memoirs do provide some moderately interesting tidbits of Wall Street history. For example, Graham, who died in 1976, first made his mark in 1915 by investing in the stock of a bankrupt railroad, figuring its ``intrinsic value'' was worth at least twice its price. For this, he was admonished by his boss: At the time, bonds were considered investments while stocks were thought to be no more than speculative vehicles. Still, the partners of the firm where he worked followed his advice--and increased their money sixfold.
But mostly, the memoirs focus on the personal. The third son of a moderately successful immigrant family impoverished by his father's death, Graham graduated from New York City schools and Columbia University. He so excelled in academe that he was offered teaching positions by three Columbia departments but instead went to Wall Street, at that time an atypical destination for a college grad. After finding success there, however, he began to teach investing, both at Columbia and through his books, to several generations of investors.
By Jeffrey M. Laderman