When one also factors in the poor opinion of theorists that Buffett and other notable Value Investors have expressed in matters of practical application of investment principles, this update was perhaps nothing more than a marketing gimmick. The argument made for this debasement of what was a classical work - and perhaps the most important book ever written - on finance, is that it needed to be made contemporarily relevant.īut Graham himself included all information required to modernize his framework using current interest rates, as well as preceding inflation rates. Graham is also frequently misquoted today, often owing to these same modifications to his text. The change in structure of Graham's original text has also caused considerable misinterpretation of Graham's principles, as described in Understanding The Benjamin Graham Formula Correctly. ExampleĪs can be seen from the scans below, the 1973 chapter list is far easier to read despite being from an older book and listing more chapters per page. This is all especially troublesome considering that the book is addressing a tough subject to begin with. All of Graham's footnotes have been moved to the end of the book, making them nearly impossible to refer to.The chapter list is almost unreadable due to the commentary list, which is all in capital letters.The book is now nearly twice as lengthy, and quite unnecessarily so as explained below.A ComparisonĪ quick visual comparison of Graham's final 1973 edition, against the modified 2006 one, amply demonstrates the reduced readability of the latter. To begin with, the commentary by Jason Zweig in the 2006 edition of The Intelligent Investor - and the resulting modifications of Graham's text - have made the book considerably harder to read. A less common 1949 edition reprinted in 2005, with a Foreword by John Bogle.The 1973 edition modified in 2006 with Jason Zweig's commentary.The two versions of The Intelligent Investor currently in print are:

The intelligent investor first edition