Edwin Lefèvre
Encyclopedia
Edwin Lefèvre was an American
journalist
, writer
, and statesman
most noted for his writings on Wall Street
business.
Lefèvre was born George Edwin Henry Lefèvre on 23 January 1871 in Colón
, Colombia
(now Republic of Panama), the son of Henry Lefèvre (1841–1899), who was for many years the general agent of the Pacific Steamship Company American for Panama
; he was born in the Jersey
in the Channel Islands
and emigrated to the United States
in his youth. Mr. Lefèvre sent his son Edwin to the United States when he was a boy and he was educated at Lehigh University
where he received training as a mining engineer. However, at the age of nineteen, he began his career as a journalist
and eventually became a stockbroker, as well. Following his father's death, he inherited some wealth and became an independent investor
; and while living in Hartsdale, New York
a collection of Edwin Lefèvre's short stories were published (1901) under the title "Wall Street Stories." This was followed by several novels about money and finance until 1908 when Lefèvre and his wife Martha and their children moved to a country estate in East Dorset, Vermont
. It has been claimed that during the 1909-1913 presidency of William Howard Taft
, Edwin Lefèvre served as ambassador
to a number of countries including Italy
, Spain
, and France
; but this should be verified with the State Department, as other men's names are listed on official websites as holding these posts under Taft. Lefevre did work as a broker on Wall Street
and was the financial writer for the New York Sun
newspaper. He later returned to his home in Vermont
where he resumed his literary work, providing short stories for magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post
and writing novel
s.
Of the eight books authored by Edwin Lefèvre his Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
is considered a must-read classic by most anyone involved in the American financial community. The book began as a series of twelve articles published between 1922 and 1923 in The Saturday Evening Post
. It is written as first-person fiction, telling the story of a professional stock trader on Wall Street. While published as fiction, it is generally accepted to be the biography
of stock market whiz Jesse Livermore. The book has been reprinted in almost every decade since its original publication in 1925, the latest put out by John Wiley & Sons
in hardcover
and paperback
in 1994 which remains in print. It has been translated into the Chinese
, German
, French
, Polish
, and Italian
languages, amongst others. A George H. Doran Company
first edition, even in fair condition, can sell today for more than a thousand dollars. In December 2009, Wiley published an Annotated Edition that bridges the gap between Lefèvre's fictionalized account and the actual exploits, personalities, and locations that populate the book. Page margins in the 2009 edition explain the historical setting and the real companies, individuals, and news events to which Lefèvre alludes.
In 1925, Lefèvre came out with a second book about a stock trader, a factual biography with the title "The Making of a Stockbroker." This book was about John K. Wing, a senior partner of Bronson and Barnes, a major Boston stockbrokerage, whose approach to the business provided a contrast to that of Jesse Livermore.
On his passing in 1943, Edwin Lefèvre's estate in East Dorset, Vermont (near Manchester) was passed to his widow. Built in 1812, it was the first home in the United States made with marble
quarried right on the property. Eldest son, Edwin Lefèvre, Jr. (b. 1902), who too worked on Wall Street, inherited the home and completely restored it in 1968 when he retired there. It is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places
. Their second son, Reid Lefèvre (b. 1904), was the founder of the travelling carnival
known as the "King Reid Show" and a politician. He was elected to the Vermont General Assembly
, serving as a member of the House of Representatives from 1947 to 1959 and the state Senate from 1961 to 1963.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
, writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, and statesman
Statesman
A statesman is usually a politician or other notable public figure who has had a long and respected career in politics or government at the national and international level. As a term of respect, it is usually left to supporters or commentators to use the term...
most noted for his writings on Wall Street
Wall Street
Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
business.
Lefèvre was born George Edwin Henry Lefèvre on 23 January 1871 in Colón
Colón, Panama
Colón is a sea port on the Caribbean Sea coast of Panama. The city lies near the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal. It is capital of Panama's Colón Province and has traditionally been known as Panama's second city....
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
(now Republic of Panama), the son of Henry Lefèvre (1841–1899), who was for many years the general agent of the Pacific Steamship Company American for Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
; he was born in the Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
in the Channel Islands
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
and emigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in his youth. Mr. Lefèvre sent his son Edwin to the United States when he was a boy and he was educated at Lehigh University
Lehigh University
Lehigh University is a private, co-educational university located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley region of the United States. It was established in 1865 by Asa Packer as a four-year technical school, but has grown to include studies in a wide variety of disciplines...
where he received training as a mining engineer. However, at the age of nineteen, he began his career as a journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and eventually became a stockbroker, as well. Following his father's death, he inherited some wealth and became an independent investor
Investor
An investor is a party that makes an investment into one or more categories of assets --- equity, debt securities, real estate, currency, commodity, derivatives such as put and call options, etc...
; and while living in Hartsdale, New York
Hartsdale, New York
Hartsdale is a hamlet and a census-designated place located in the town of Greenburgh, Westchester County, New York. The population was 5,293 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Hartsdale is located at ....
a collection of Edwin Lefèvre's short stories were published (1901) under the title "Wall Street Stories." This was followed by several novels about money and finance until 1908 when Lefèvre and his wife Martha and their children moved to a country estate in East Dorset, Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
. It has been claimed that during the 1909-1913 presidency of William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the tenth Chief Justice of the United States...
, Edwin Lefèvre served as ambassador
Ambassador
An ambassador is the highest ranking diplomat who represents a nation and is usually accredited to a foreign sovereign or government, or to an international organization....
to a number of countries including Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
; but this should be verified with the State Department, as other men's names are listed on official websites as holding these posts under Taft. Lefevre did work as a broker on Wall Street
Wall Street
Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...
and was the financial writer for the New York Sun
New York Sun
The New York Sun was a weekday daily newspaper published in New York City from 2002 to 2008. When it debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of an otherwise unrelated earlier New York paper, The Sun , it became the first general-interest broadsheet newspaper to be started...
newspaper. He later returned to his home in Vermont
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
where he resumed his literary work, providing short stories for magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...
and writing novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s.
Of the eight books authored by Edwin Lefèvre his Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator
Reminiscences of a Stock Operator is a 1923 novel by American author Edwin Lefèvre which is the thinly disguised biography of Jesse Lauriston Livermore...
is considered a must-read classic by most anyone involved in the American financial community. The book began as a series of twelve articles published between 1922 and 1923 in The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...
. It is written as first-person fiction, telling the story of a professional stock trader on Wall Street. While published as fiction, it is generally accepted to be the biography
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
of stock market whiz Jesse Livermore. The book has been reprinted in almost every decade since its original publication in 1925, the latest put out by John Wiley & Sons
John Wiley & Sons
John Wiley & Sons, Inc., also referred to as Wiley, is a global publishing company that specializes in academic publishing and markets its products to professionals and consumers, students and instructors in higher education, and researchers and practitioners in scientific, technical, medical, and...
in hardcover
Hardcover
A hardcover, hardback or hardbound is a book bound with rigid protective covers...
and paperback
Paperback
Paperback, softback or softcover describe and refer to a book by the nature of its binding. The covers of such books are usually made of paper or paperboard, and are usually held together with glue rather than stitches or staples...
in 1994 which remains in print. It has been translated into the Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
, and Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
languages, amongst others. A George H. Doran Company
George H. Doran Company
George H. Doran Company was an American book publishing company established by George Henry Doran. He organized the company in Toronto and moved it to New York City on February 22, 1908....
first edition, even in fair condition, can sell today for more than a thousand dollars. In December 2009, Wiley published an Annotated Edition that bridges the gap between Lefèvre's fictionalized account and the actual exploits, personalities, and locations that populate the book. Page margins in the 2009 edition explain the historical setting and the real companies, individuals, and news events to which Lefèvre alludes.
In 1925, Lefèvre came out with a second book about a stock trader, a factual biography with the title "The Making of a Stockbroker." This book was about John K. Wing, a senior partner of Bronson and Barnes, a major Boston stockbrokerage, whose approach to the business provided a contrast to that of Jesse Livermore.
On his passing in 1943, Edwin Lefèvre's estate in East Dorset, Vermont (near Manchester) was passed to his widow. Built in 1812, it was the first home in the United States made with marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
quarried right on the property. Eldest son, Edwin Lefèvre, Jr. (b. 1902), who too worked on Wall Street, inherited the home and completely restored it in 1968 when he retired there. It is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. Their second son, Reid Lefèvre (b. 1904), was the founder of the travelling carnival
Carnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
known as the "King Reid Show" and a politician. He was elected to the Vermont General Assembly
Vermont General Assembly
The Vermont General Assembly is the legislative body of the U.S. state of Vermont. The Legislature is formally known as the "General Assembly," but the style of "Legislature" is commonly used, including by the body itself...
, serving as a member of the House of Representatives from 1947 to 1959 and the state Senate from 1961 to 1963.
External links
- Edwin Lefevre:Man of Mystery extensive article by WallStreetCosmos.com