Life, Liberty and Property: A Story of Conflict and a Measurement of Conflicting Rights by JONES, Alfred Winslow - 1941

Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1941. First Edition. Hardcover. Jones's uncommon first book, an investigation, based on interviews conducted at the peak of the Great Depression, of middle-class and working-class attitudes towards private property versus collectivism. Following a decade-long journalistic career for Fortune Magazine, Jones would go on to prominence as a stock market analyst and investor; he is credited with creating the first modern hedge fund in 1949 and is generally regarded as the father of the hedge fund industry. While the current work has little direct bearing on Jones's later investment career, his methodology as a sociologist certainly reveals the talent for systematic and analytical thinking that enabled his funds to outperform the S&P 500 over a 40-year period. Octavo. Navy linen boards, stamped in gilt on spine and front cover; pictorial dustjacket; 397pp. Old bookseller's stamp to front endpaper; board edges slightly sunned, still else a tight, Very Good copy in the original dustwrapper, price-clipped and somewhat worn, with overall rubbing and a few brief losses to extremities; about Very Good.