John Bogle on Investing: The First 50 Years

2015 INTRODUCTION TO THE CLASSIC EDITION OF JOHN BOGLE ON INVESTING: THE FIRST 50 YEARS

Has The First 50 Years Become a Classic?

Let me tell you the story, and then you can decide. First, you should know that John Bogle on Investing: The First 50 Years had an unusual conception. Following the 1993 publication of my first book, Bogle on Mutual Funds: New Perspectives for the Intelligent Investor, by Irwin Professional Publishing, that firm was acquired by the McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

When I decided to write a second book, I chose John Wiley & Sons as my publisher. That book, published in 1999, was titled Common Sense on Mutual Funds: New Imperatives for the Intelligent Investor, playing on the Benjamin-Graham-like theme of its predecessor. (In 2009, a fully updated 10th Anniversary Edition was published.)

McGraw-Hill's senior editor, Jeffrey A. Krames, was eager to earn back his firm's role as my publisher. In late 2000, Jeff came to me with a proposal to publish an anthology of some of the essays and speeches that I had written earlier in my mutual fund career, going all the way back, as it turned out, to 1971. The capstone of the proposed book would be the publication of my 1951 senior thesis at Princeton University, “The Economic Role of the Investment Company,” a study of the past, present, and future of the then-infant U.S. mutual fund industry. Hence, John Bogle on Investing: The First 50 Years.

It was no easy task to select the essays for inclusion in the anthology. Some ...