Robert W. Wilson is the greatest investor of all time, on the only criterion that counts: percentage return on capital. What you make with what you have, what you started out with. Wilson would be the first to point out that there are investors richer than himself; but on a percentage-return basis, he is unmatched, and untouched. He received $15,000 from his mother in 1958, and he ran this stake to the fabulous sum of $230 million, by 1986. With assistance he himself sought out, he then nearly quadrupled his net worth to $800 million, by the year 2000. This return, after taxes no less, is more than 50,000 to one. More than 5,000,000 percent. Wilson did it in about forty years, without partners. How? How, possibly? This book, "Killing the Market," tries to find, or at least get close to, an answer. Robert Wilson quit the investing business in 1986, because he had "lost his touch," as he said. The most productive of men, the hardest working of men, he started to move into philanthropy. Eventually he became just about the most important philanthropist in the United States. Of the $800 million he accumulated, he had given away fully $700 million of it at the time of his death, in 2013 (by his own hand). Movingly, Robert Wilson's gifts were never to things that entertained him, or to pet projects; they were always to charities trying very hard to make the world a better place for everybody.
About the Author: Roemer McPhee was trained in history at Princeton University, and in finance at the Wharton Graduate School of Business, in Philadelphia. He has worked as a trader and investor on Wall Street, and also privately. He is the author of "The Boomer's Guide to Story," a large collection of essays searching for wisdom and insight in modern stories (novels, original screenplays, even a few ballads). He lives in New York City with his wife and son. "When the history books are closed on the significant men of the past 100 years, Robert W. Wilson's name will be at the top." --Grady Harp, Top 100 Amazon Hall of Fame reviewer. "A brilliant investor and generous philanthropist who cut a swath through New York City as few others...and who never forgot the importance of giving back." --Carol Cain, Emmy Award winning journalist, CBS-TV and The Detroit Free Press "If you could liken a superstar Wall Street investor to Beethoven or Mozart, Robert W. Wilson would be right up there as the ideal candidate." --Norm Goldman, publisher and editor of Book Pleasures, Inc. "[Robert Wilson] was a lover of life, a lover of nature, a lover of preservation, a lover of people, a lover of everyone." --Leonard Lauder, Chairman emeritus, The Estee Lauder Companies, Inc.