The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

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Random House Publishing Group, Sep 29, 2008 - Biography & Autobiography - 976 pages
The personally revealing and complete biography of the man known everywhere as “The Oracle of Omaha”—for fans of the HBO documentary Becoming Warren Buffett

Here is the book recounting the life and times of one of the most respected men in the world, Warren Buffett. The legendary Omaha investor has never written a memoir, but now he has allowed one writer, Alice Schroeder, unprecedented access to explore directly with him and with those closest to him his work, opinions, struggles, triumphs, follies, and wisdom.

Although the media track him constantly, Buffett himself has never told his full life story. His reality is private, especially by celebrity standards. Indeed, while the homespun persona that the public sees is true as far as it goes, it goes only so far. Warren Buffett is an array of paradoxes. He set out to prove that nice guys can finish first. Over the years he treated his investors as partners, acted as their steward, and championed honesty as an investor, CEO, board member, essayist, and speaker. At the same time he became the world’s richest man, all from the modest Omaha headquarters of his company Berkshire Hathaway. None of this fits the term “simple.”

When Alice Schroeder met Warren Buffett she was an insurance industry analyst and a gifted writer known for her keen perception and business acumen. Her writings on finance impressed him, and as she came to know him she realized that while much had been written on the subject of his investing style, no one had moved beyond that to explore his larger philosophy, which is bound up in a complex personality and the details of his life. Out of this came his decision to cooperate with her on the book about himself that he would never write.

Never before has Buffett spent countless hours responding to a writer’s questions, talking, giving complete access to his wife, children, friends, and business associates—opening his files, recalling his childhood. It was an act of courage, as The Snowball makes immensely clear. Being human, his own life, like most lives, has been a mix of strengths and frailties. Yet notable though his wealth may be, Buffett’s legacy will not be his ranking on the scorecard of wealth; it will be his principles and ideas that have enriched people’s lives. This book tells you why Warren Buffett is the most fascinating American success story of our time.

Praise for The Snowball

“Even people who don't care a whit about business will be intrigued by this portrait. . . . Schroeder, a former insurance-industry analyst, spent years interviewing Buffett, and the result is a side of the Oracle of Omaha that has rarely been seen.”Time

“Will mesmerize anyone interested in who Mr. Buffett is or how he got that way. The Snowball tells a fascinating story.”New York Times

“If the replication of any great achievement first requires knowledge of how it was done, then The Snowball, the most detailed glimpse inside Warren Buffett and his world that we likely will ever get, should become a Bible for capitalists.”Washington Post

“Riveting and encyclopedic.”Wall Street Journal

“A monumental biography . . . Schroeder got the best access yet of any Buffett biographer. . . . She deals out marvelously funny and poignant stories about Buffett and the conglomerate he runs, Berkshire Hathaway.”Forbes

“The most authoritative portrait of one of the most important American investors of our time.”Los Angeles Times
 

Contents

Candy Harry
339
The Sun
352
Two Drowned Rats
367
Newshound
375
Spaghetti Western
387
The Giant
399
How Not to Run a Public Library
416
And Then What?
439

Armistice Day
53
A Thousand Ways
59
Inky Fingers
66
True Crime Stories
86
Pudgy She Was
89
Silent Sales
96
The Rules of the Racetrack
105
The Elephant
110
The Interview
123
Strike One
129
Mount Everest
139
Miss Nebraska
151
Stage Fright
163
PART THREEThe Racetrack
175
GrahamNewman
177
The Side to Play
190
Hidden Splendor
200
The Windmill
242
Haystacks of Gold
247
Folly
263
Dry Tinder
278
What a Worsted Is
287
Jet Jack
294
The Scaffold Sways the Future
303
Easy Safe Profitable and Pleasant
312
The Unwinding
321
PART FOURSusie Sings
337
Blue Ribbon
457
PART FIVE The King of Wall Street
475
Pharaoh
477
Rose
490
Call the Tow Truck
505
Rubicon
514
White Nights
543
ThumbSucking and Its HollowCheeked Result
562
The Angry Gods
597
The Lottery
619
To Hell with the Bear
647
Chickenfeed
665
The Genie
687
The Last Kay Party
702
By the Rich for the Rich
712
Oracle
730
Buffetted
752
Winter
765
Frozen Coke
773
The Seventh Fire
786
Claim Checks
806
Afterword
831
Notes
839
A Personal Note About Research
929
665
937
Copyright

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About the author (2008)

Author Alice Schroeder was a noted insurance industry analyst and writer who was a managing director at Morgan Stanley. She first met Warren Buffett when she published research on Berkshire Hathaway; her grasp of the subject and insight so impressed him that he offered her access to his files and to himself. Their friendship and mutual respect make her ideally positioned to write the The Snowball.Ms. Schroeder was born in Texas, and she earned an undergraduate degree and her MBA at the University of Texas at Austin before moving east to work in finance. She is a former CPA and lives in Connecticut with her husband.

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