Business: Satirizing the War as an Investment

THE ordinary corporate prospectus, a document prepared for prospective investors in a new stock issue, is perhaps 25% livelier reading than the Manhattan telephone book. One recent prospectus, however, is on the way to becoming a Wall Street bestseller, mostly because it convulses readers with often grim laughter. Brokers and other businessmen have been discussing it in board rooms and over luncheon tables; investment firms have ordered extra copies in quantity.

The author, Burton R. Tauber, 35, took time out last spring from his Wall Street law practice—which often involved preparation of prospectuses—to do some volunteer antiwar lobbying in Washington. He felt...